New Wave Of Spam Exploits Georgia-Russia Conflict

Spammers have been exploiting the headlines for quite awhile now, so it’s not too surprising that a new wave of spam exploiting the Russia/Georgia conflict have hit inboxes across the net. The messages contain headlines from a fake BBC story claiming Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili is embroiled in a gay sex scandal, and invites the recipient to click on a link to read more. If clicked what it actually does is lead to a malicious site that downloads malware onto the victim’s computer and adds it to a brand new and very pro-Russian botnet. Researchers at the University of Alabama, Birmingham traced the malicious spam back to 44 computers, all which have no previous spam record, and several are located in Russia. It’s not yet known if the domains are truly malcious or have simply been hijacked by the hackers behind the attack.

In what some are calling more than just a coincidence, the website of President Saakashvili was hit with a DDoS attack. While a connection to the spam has not yet been confirmed, security experts are debating whether Georgia and Russia are using cyber-warfare as part of their arsenals. In another attack, the website of Georgia’s Foreign Affairs office was hijacked and its homepage replaced with an image depicting Saakashvili as a Nazi. While Georgia believes Russia is behind the attacks, as of yet no one can prove just who is behind the spam or the attacks.