Play your part in a safe and secure inauguration

us-presedential-sealThe inauguration of Barack Obama is capturing the attention of the world.  What I have found interesting, in the run-up to the event itself, is the sheer size and scope of the preparations. Particularly, the security arrangements that are being taken. Preparations are being made to cover all eventualities. The roads in Washington have been closed, there will be tens of thousands of Police and Army personnel deployed, with snipers providing cover from the roof-tops along the parade route. That is not to mention, the helicopters and even fighter jets that will patrol the skies and  the patrol boats monitoring the waterways.  We all hope for a safe and peaceful event.

Now, I would also encourage you to take your own security precautions in the run up to and through, what is turning out to be, a world event. The Symantec Global Intelligence is detecting and picking up a surge of inauguration themed Spam. We have written about this here.

The tactic is the well- worn one of sensationalist email headings, with an embedded link, that takes you to a web site that ostensibly looks like an official Obama campaign web site. However, it is far from that. The web site will then automatically try and attack your web browser to surreptitiously install malicious software onto your machine.  Although, your machine maybe fully patched and therefore deflect this type of attack, the site hopes that your curiosity gets the better of you, and further hyperlinks on the site points to other malicious content.  We have detected the piece of piece of malicious software being used here under the name W32.waledac.  This particular piece of malware is capable of harvesting your machine for personal information, turning it into a spam zombie and also leaving a ‘back-door’, so that the hackers can come and go from your machine and use it at their will.

January 19, 2009 | Filed Under Events, Security, Uncategorized 

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