Wednesday 24 September 2014

Be careful what you click on

An email arrives, claiming that I've received a 4-page fax.

However it's always interesting, whenever you receive an email with a link like this one, to hover your mouse over the link, but without clicking it. Then you can see where the link will really take you.
So this "fax" is stored on a web site called "ismashahalam.net" in Malaysia? Curious. If you click on the link (don't do this, I've already done it for you, so you don't need to risk it) that's when the danger begins. Luckily my computer took charge and told me this:

Image c/o Wikipedia
The site appears to be hosting something called "Mal/BredoZp-B" which is described as:
"a particular kind of phishing scam that ...  allows criminals to take over thousands of computers simultaneously and turn them into zombies in order to carry out coordinated attacks."
"Criminals use Mal/BredoZp-B in order to make computer users believe that they have received a package or that there was a failure in delivery. Typically, these messages will include an attached file or embedded link, which leads to the actual malware infection."
"Although the law enforcement managed to bring down the criminals responsible for Bredo, the email scam that they used to deliver malware to their victims is still well and alive." 
It should be noted that this particular piece of dangerous software only affects unprotected computers running Windows. So I'm safe. But it's up to you. Do you want to be protected against these attacks or would you rather be a zombie?

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