False claims that presidential candidate Barack Obama is a sex tourist are being used to trick users into getting infected by malware.

Prospective marks are encouraged to check out a video implausibly showing the married Democrat in action with a Ukrainian strumpet. Gullible folks who fall for the ruse are shown a bongo clip while, in the background, malicious files are installed onto their Windows PCs, net security firm Websense reports.

The attack loads spyware onto compromised PCs. Once harvested, stolen information from infected PCs is posted to a compromised web server in Finland, controlled by unidentified hackers.

More details on the attack can be found in Websense's advisory here.

Virus writers regularly make up news stories or offer illicit clips of celebrities in order to bait malware attacks, but up to now the celebrities in question have usually been the likes of Britney Spears or Paris Hilton rather than more respected figures. Curiously, the Monica Lewinsky sex scandal never became the topic of a malware attack. ®

Related stories

• USA '08 McCain pulls ahead in pharmaceutical spam (4 November 2008)
• USA '08 Oxford don offered $10,000 for proof terrorist penned Obama memoir (3 November 2008)
• Obama: McCain can't email, remembers Rubik's Cubes (12 September 2008)
• Paris Hilton - the compromised candidate (6 August 2008)
• Hackers field malware from fake US election sites (2 November 2007)
• Prostitution, Web cams and political corruption (23 August 2001)
• Clinton could force Web to its knees (11 September 1998)