July 29, 2008
One of the hallmarks of the Storm botnet is the ubiquitous greeting card spam it sends out. The email generally include a link that leads to a bogus 'viewer' for the pretend e-greeting (which claims to be from an unnamed family member or equally unidentified secret admirer). When run, the viewer doesn't display a card, but instead installs a backdoor Trojan that turns the now infected system into yet another Storm bot.
But Storm earned its name not from greeting card scams, but rather from an incendiary email with the subject line "230 dead as storm batters Europe". That email, sent in January 2007, coincided with a very real storm that actually did result in the tragic loss of life in Europe. Other urgent sounding subject lines sent by Stom include "British Muslims Genocide", "Chinese missile shot down Russian satellite", or "Fidel Castro dead".
In recent weeks, a rash of spam has been sent that bear much resemblance to the all-too-familiar tactics of Storm. Subject lines include:
Earthquake in California destroys Schwarzenegger house
John Mccain Taps Osama Bin Laden As Running Mate
Queen Elizabeth abducted in Tibet
Obama caught with pants down
Yankee Stadium demolished
Pope killed by assasin in Vatican City
Coral reefs found extinct
New york yankees team killed in bus crash
Angelina Jolie dies in miscarriage
As with the headline that earned Storm it's nickname, some of the subjects do bear resemblance to recent news stories.
For example, "Cell phone radiation risks exposed" and "Joker steals the show" (coinciding with the latest Batman release).
To avoid infection, never follow links in email received unexpectedly, particularly when sent from unknown sources.
Also see: Email Scams, Phishing and Fraud
One of the hallmarks of the Storm botnet is the ubiquitous greeting card spam it sends out. The email generally include a link that leads to a bogus 'viewer' for the pretend e-greeting (which claims to be from an unnamed family member or equally unidentified secret admirer). When run, the viewer doesn't display a card, but instead installs a backdoor Trojan that turns the now infected system into yet another Storm bot.
But Storm earned its name not from greeting card scams, but rather from an incendiary email with the subject line "230 dead as storm batters Europe". That email, sent in January 2007, coincided with a very real storm that actually did result in the tragic loss of life in Europe. Other urgent sounding subject lines sent by Stom include "British Muslims Genocide", "Chinese missile shot down Russian satellite", or "Fidel Castro dead".
In recent weeks, a rash of spam has been sent that bear much resemblance to the all-too-familiar tactics of Storm. Subject lines include:
Earthquake in California destroys Schwarzenegger house
John Mccain Taps Osama Bin Laden As Running Mate
Queen Elizabeth abducted in Tibet
Obama caught with pants down
Yankee Stadium demolished
Pope killed by assasin in Vatican City
Coral reefs found extinct
New york yankees team killed in bus crash
Angelina Jolie dies in miscarriage
As with the headline that earned Storm it's nickname, some of the subjects do bear resemblance to recent news stories.
For example, "Cell phone radiation risks exposed" and "Joker steals the show" (coinciding with the latest Batman release).
To avoid infection, never follow links in email received unexpectedly, particularly when sent from unknown sources.
Also see: Email Scams, Phishing and Fraud
Source...