Michael Jackson top subject of malware spam this year
Friday, August 7, 2009
Michael Jackson, swine flu and Barack Obama have been this year's top subjects of malware-distributing spam email and messages on social networks such as Twitter and Facebook, according to a malware analysis by PandaLabs.
PandaLabs, the research arm of web security vendor Panda Security, said its analysis of malware spread from January through July of this year showed that 30 percent of malware messages were about Jackson's death, even though it happened at the end of June.
Another 27 percent of malware used the public health scare about the H1N1 swine flu virus, while 11 percent of malware messages referenced Obama, PandaLabs reported.
Spammers and hackers latch onto events in the news and in pop culture to lure people into visiting websites hosting malware. Usually, a malware website will tell visitors they must download a codec to view a video, which will actually download the malware.
One of the most active virus families as of late is Waledac, which appeared two years ago and is still thriving, the company said.
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