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Dalai Lama |
When protests in Myanmar took a violent turn in the last week of September, the online world went into hyperdrive with massive online postings and active emailing to gather support against the ruling junta.
Taking advantage of the situation now are hackers who have started to send out emails which claim to be a message of support for monks and other protesters in Myanmar from the Dalai Lama.
IT security and control firm, Sophos, is however cautioning that the email in fact carries a malicious attack designed to infect the recipient's PC.
The malicious email that's making its rounds also takes advantage of reports that the Burmese regime is trying to stop news coming out of the country by shutting down internet cafes and controlling computer users' access to the net.
"People around the world are hungry to hear about the latest situation in the country and support the pro-democracy movement, and may be tempted to read this so-called letter from the Dalai Lama,” said Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant at Sophos. “Using topical news stories to trick unwary computer users into opening and downloading malicious code is one of the oldest tricks in the book, but it's obviously still working or the hackers wouldn't waste their time on it. We should all use our common sense and question the legitimacy of emails sent out of the blue” warns Cluley.
The email which is signed off by "Tenzin Taklha" asks that the message be distributed to as many people as possible. It reads: "Dear Friends & Colleagues, Please find enclosed a massage(sic) from His Holiness the Dalai Lama in support of the recent pro democracy demonstrations taking place in Burma."
The so-called message from the Dalai Lama which is attached to the email, and carries the filename: hhdl burma_001.doc, in fact contains malware.
Sophos warns that once a user opens the document a Word vulnerability will be exploited and attempts will be made to download the Trojan, Agent-CGU, onto the victim's PC.
Sophos security experts warn that the email carries a link to the official website of the Dalai Lama and this is an attempt to add even more credibility to the message and to encourage a greater number of victims to open the malware attached. - CNA/sf
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