Air France Crash Sparks Malware and Spam Outbreak

The recent Air France tragedy has fueled new outbreaks of spam and malware. Researchers are reporting that spam promising exclusive news on the crash is hitting the net. The new attack featured subjects such as “A-330 blackbox record” and “Last seconds of tragic plane”, but those that opened them were treated to ads for shady Canadian pharmacies pushing discounted drugs like Tamiflu and Viagra.

Another attack, said to originate from Portugal, is much more dangerous. The messages contain a link claiming to lead to exclusive video of the crash site, but instead lead to a malicious site that downloads a Trojan on to the visitor’s computer. The Trojan is designed to scan the system and steal passwords and usernames.

A third attack uses blackhat SEO techniques to poison search results related to the crash with malicious links that lead to sites that push downloads of rogue anti-virus programs, a type of scareware.

Experts recommend getting your news reports from well known and trusted sites only and keeping all anti-spam and and anti-virus programs up to date at all times.

Exploiting headlines and hot topics is a common tactic for spammers and malware distributors, who tailor their attacks to popular holidays, new stories, and popular celebrities and scandals. When they exploit a tragedy however, it becomes particularly distasteful.

Air France Flight 446 crashed in the middle of the Atlantic on May 31, killing all 228 people aboard. It is now the worst air disaster since 2001.