Fake Obama news sites, emails being used to spread malware

While it's not news that malware developers are opportunistic, their latest deception isn't at all what I expected.

Fake P2P sites? Sure. Fake celeb porn sites? Ok. But bogus presidential news blogs?

Trend Micro researchers have discovered a number of sites built using Obama's name and related keywords to ensnare unwary browsers. The sites try to push ActiveX controls and .exe files on visitors like barack.exe or baracknews.exe. Spam is now appearing in inboxes as well in an attempt to drive users to the suspicious sites.

As is the norm in these cases, the sites and emails are poorly written and would probably only look believable after six or seven beers.

Subject : What will be with our country?
Message: Barack Obama is not ready to be a president [link]. Yours sincerely, [name]

Keeping yourself infection-free shouldn't be a big deal, as long as you exercise common sense. Don't run .exe files from sites you don't trust. Don't authorize ActiveX installs in Internet Explorer on sites you don't trust (through the gold bar at the top of the browser window).

Dear god, man!!! What will be with our country?!?!

We'll all be in a lot more trouble the day malware hooligans decide to employ someone that knows how to write compelling bs.

Tags: malware, obama, scam, spam, virus