Storm worm takes advantage of earthquake disaster in China

If you want to read information about the horrific earthquake that happened in Sichuan last month, it's best to visit an official press website.

It is absolutely not advisable to click directly on the video link sent to your email inbox, if you do not want to turn yourself into a hacker victim. That is the message that US-CERT has just issued yesterday.

According to US-CERT, the organization has received hundreds of reports on a new variant of the Storm worm, aimed at all those interested in the earthquake disaster that happened on May 12.

Considered as one of the worst earthquakes in history, this disaster killed nearly 70,000 people and left 5 million people homeless. In addition, some emails also use the title related to the Beijing Olympics to take place in China in August to "guest questions".

Once you click on the email, the user will encounter a link advertised as a video that captures the "true and latest" image of the disaster.

Still raging

However, in fact, it will lead the recipient to a malicious website, and implicitly activate the exe code inside the system. As a result, the victim's computer will turn into a zombie and be hacked into a botnet by a hacker to spread spam or launch denial-of-service attacks.

Appeared since last year, the Storm worm is the terror of security circles with a wide range of dispersal. Storm versions always exploit well the events or holidays, and many people are interested in such as April Fool or Valentine.

Even once, the Storm worm itself disguised itself as a security patch aimed at another worm to trick users into accessing a malicious website.

As usual, computer users and system administrators are recommended to install and update the latest antivirus software immediately. And of course, do not click on any links sent in the email.