Hackers step up game, spread malware using Bin Laden bait

Computerworld - Hackers today stepped up their use of Osama Bin Laden's death by shoving malware into PCs when users fall for phony claims of photographs and video, security researchers said today.

"It's not really surprising," said Mikko Hypponen, the chief research officer of Helsinki-based F-Secure. "We were expecting to see related malware."

The shift to direct attacks follows Monday's campaigns to push fake security software, dubbed "rogueware," to both Windows and Mac users.

Earlier today, F-Secure warned users to steer clear of spam that included the "Fotos_Osama_Bin_Laden.zip" archive attachment. The messages claim the file contains photos of Bin Laden after he was shot and killed by U.S. special forces during a 40-minute firefight in his compound in the northern Pakistani city of Abbottabad.

Running the resulting Windows executable file doesn't display photographs, but instead launches a new banking Trojan horse belonging to the three-year-old "Banload" line, said Hypponen. The malware sniffs out online banking sessions and then tries to redirect payments to other accounts.

Other security companies have also snared malware packaged with Bin Laden spam.

Today, Symantec said it had found email messages touting photos and video of the U.S. attack's aftermath. The messages, which so far have been written in French, Portuguese and Spanish, lead users to a fake CNN Web site where they're told to download video.

As in the F-Secure instance, the download is, in fact, a "dropper" that in turn downloads malicious code to the Windows PC.

Bin Laden scams are also spreading quickly on Facebook, Hypponen and others said.

The latest scam plays on the reputation of Wikileaks, the organization that has leaked thousands of U.S. military and diplomatic messages during the last year.

"Osama is dead, watch this exclusive CNN video which was censored by Obama Administration due to level of violence, a must watch," claims the Facebook spam. "Leaked by Wikileaks."

According to U.K.-based Sophos, the Facebook messages don't play video of the al-Qaeda leader's death, but actually dupe users into copying and pasting a line of JavaScript into their browser's address bar.

The Bin Laden Facebook con dupes users into spreading the scam. (Image: Commtouch.)