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Malware uses trending celebrities to drag new victims into Botnets

Announcement posted by BitDefender 23 Oct 2012

Singers Madonna and Rihanna, vectors of success for aggressive spam campaigns

SYDNEY & AUCKLAND October 23, 2012 – A new illicit email campaign using celebrity names such as Madonna and Rihanna, that is also spreading in Australia, infects computers with malware and recruits users into rapidly growing botnets, according to Bitdefender, the award-winning provider of innovative antivirus solutions.

Rihanna, the 7th  most popular celebrity in Australia this year with 301.000 local monthly searches according to a Google search tool, and Madonna, who ranks 19th with 135.000 searches a month, are used as baits to make users click on malicious websites hosted on Russian domains.

Opening the link infects vulnerable users with malware that steals their private data and places their computers in the hands of the attackers. Users then spread malware themselves as their computers are taken over by a command-and-control server, and become zombies in a botnet, or illegal collection of infected computers controlled by cyber-criminals.

“Clicking on an email that contains names such as Pink, Justin Bieber or Rihanna definitely poses a degree of risk,” said Bitdefender Chief Security Strategist, Catalin Cosoi. “The risk is even greater when the celebrities named in the email are the subject of a recent scandal or some other big news. Scammers are constantly following stars and trends to figure out what people most want to read about, then they serve it to them, laced with malware.”

In the latest malware campaign using celebrity names, subjects such as ‘FWD: Best of Madonna’ and ‘Justin Bieber fan's suicide’ lure users to malicious Russian domains or fake Canadian pharmacy sites. To make the Rihanna scam seem like a commercial for one of her famous hits, cyber-crooks included the word “Umbrella” in spam messages. They also used her name in emails allegedly coming from LinkedIn. The same campaign takes advantage of other celebrities such as English singer Adele, ranked 8th in the most popular Australian celebrity searches.

For more information on the latest social media scams using celebrities, see HotForSecurity.

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For further information about Bitdefender, please contact

Anna Barnes
Howorth Communications
02 8281 3802

anna@howorth.com.au

About Bitdefender®

Bitdefender is the creator of one of the world's fastest and most effective lines of internationally certified internet security software. Since 2001, the company has been an industry pioneer, introducing and developing award-winning protection. Today, Bitdefender technology secures the digital experience of around 400 million home and corporate users across the globe.

Recently, Bitdefender won a series of important awards and accolades in the global security industry, including “Editor’s Choice” by PC Mag for Bitdefender Antivirus Plus 2013 and the “GoldAward” by TopTenREVIEWS that confirmed the software’s top spot among 25 tested security products. Bitdefender antivirus technology has also finished top in leading industry tests from both AV Test and AV-Comparatives. More information about Bitdefender's antivirus products is available from the company's security solutions press room. Additionally, Bitdefender publishes the HOTforSecurity blog, a sizzling blend of steamy computer security stories and stimulating visuals that spotlights the seedy underworld of internet fraud, scams, malicious software – and gossip.