Detecting trojans kidnapping and turning email into spam

Symantec security experts found a trojan capable of automatically "attaching spam" to emails, instant messages and forum posts.

Eric Chien - Symantec's security researcher - said the Trojan used a Windows service provider to monitor incoming and outgoing data and insert its content into sent messages. away from infected PC.

" Spam on forums is a normal thing ," Chien said. " But spam attached directly in legitimate posts of forum members is another thing ."

Not only is this trojan able to attach its "spam content" to both instant messages sent from AIM, Yahoo Messenger, GTalk and ICQ.

Even the trojan can automatically insert content into emails sent from some popular web-based email services like Gmail, Hotmail and Yahoo Mail.

Spam is also the main way of distributing Trojan.Mespam trojans. If a user accidentally clicks on the link attached to these spam messages, the trojan will immediately break into their PC.

Researchers recommend users not to click on links posted on forums, email or instant messages and avoid allowing any suspicious files to run.

Hoang Dung