This article is more than 1 year old

Fake Japan blackout alerts cloak Flash malware

Scumbags continue to batten on human misery

Scumbags are taking advantage of the desperate situation in Japan by distributing malware that poses as information about a rolling electricity blackout programme.

Malicious emails contain infected Excel attachments hosting a Flash exploit ultimately designed to drop a malicious executable on compromised Windows PCs.

The emergence of an attack serves as a reminder of the need to update Adobe Flash, using a patch released earlier this week. A detailed run-down of the attack can be found in a blog post by Finnish anti-virus firm F-Secure here.

Pondlife scammers have deployed just about every scam ruse imaginable in the wake of the crisis that has blighted Japan since 11 March. Previous attacks have included 419 scams, fake donation sites, scareware baiting using search engine manipulation and more.

Chris Boyd on GFI Labs has compiled a useful list of tips for avoiding this seemingly never-ending list of scams here. ®

More about

More about

More about

TIP US OFF

Send us news


Other stories you might like