Be wary of unsolicited emails about recent news stories

We all know that spammers and hackers have very few morals, especially after my last post about how they were sending spam emails pretending they were from legitimate charities.

Well, it seems they've sunk even further, with their attempts to infect people’s computers by sending out spam emails that at first glance appear to be about the terrible situation in China, following the major earthquakes there.

Security firm Sophos has caught a number of spam emails that try to lure in concerned computer owners with subject lines referring to news reports about recent disasters in China and Burma. These emails are particularly nasty, as you only need to open the email for it to download malicious code onto your computer. The emails also contain an Office Word document as an attachment that contains further viruses, and instructions to open the document to learn more about the tragedies.

On the Sophos web site senior technology consultant Graham Cluley writes that, “Over the last few weeks, we've already seen several examples of cybercriminals trying to exploit the natural disasters suffered by China and Burma, and it seems there's no end to their tactics… to avoid falling victim, computer users need to use their common sense and not open emails from people they don't know.”

It’s very sad that hackers are preying on people’s concerns about these recent disasters, so it is worth bearing in mind that you should never open an email you have received from someone you don’t know, no matter what the subject line says.