Skip to main content
Customer Support Customer Support

Fake CNN Alert "U.S. Bombed Syria" Leads to Malware

  • September 11, 2013
  • 3 replies
  • 1315 views
JimM
  • JimM
  • Retired Webrooter
  • 1581 replies
A new phishing attack targeting outdated Adobe Reader and Java versions is being disseminated in the form of a fake CNN alert email claiming that the U.S. has bombed Syria.
 


img/source: Threatpost
 
This one is easy to spot because 1. The U.S. has not actually bombed Syria, and 2. As is the habit of many malware authors, the grammar is atrocious.  For instance, the tagline says, "It was dropped about 15 bomn on stalitsu syria Demascus.”  If a CNN writer actually wrote that, I'm Santa Claus.  Notably however, Casey Wian is an actual CNN reporter, so they did get that right.
 
Keep an eye out for this threat, and don't let it try to trick you into opening the link.
/// JimM /// /// Former Community Manager - Now Humble Internet Citizen/// /// Also Formerly a Technical Support Escalations Engineer ///
    cohbraz
    Ssherjj
    nic
    5 people like this
    • cohbraz
      cohbraz
    • Ssherjj
      Ssherjj
    • nic
      nic
    • D_J
      D_J
    • Nemo
      Nemo

    shorTcircuiT
    Gold VIP
    Even given the normal lousy grammer/spelling and obvious falsehoods in the report (Obama is actually delaying the Senate vote and action at this time....) I am willing to bet this one fools quite a few people.  
     
    Thanks for the heads up Jim and thank you Webroot for helping to keep me protected from this garbage!
    superssjdan
    Community Leader
    Forum|alt.badge.img+13
    • superssjdan
    • Community Leader
    • September 12, 2013
    This will fool quite a few people,most likely the less fortunate and most vulnerable such as senior citizens. Most attentive people will know what's going on, but it's the .5-1% of people that will actually fall for it and make the campaign successful. Malware writers will latch on to pretty much anything these days in an effort to deceive us.Yet another reason why ones choice of an internet security program is a crucial one,and one that should be carefully considered.I'll sleep well at night knowing that Webroot has us covered should anything drop and attempt to excute.
    WSA 9.0.29.62,Macrium Reflect Paid, Diskeeper 18,AMD Ryzen 7 3700X - 32GB 3000mhz Memory - AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT - 2TB HDD + 1 TB Samsung M.2 970 EVO SSD
    shorTcircuiT
    1 person likes this
    • shorTcircuiT
      shorTcircuiT
    shorTcircuiT
    Gold VIP
    @ wrote:
    This will fool quite a few people,most likely the less fortunate and most vulnerable such as senior citizens. Most attentive people will know what's going on, but it's the .5-1% of people that will actually fall for it and make the campaign successful. Malware writers will latch on to pretty much anything these days in an effort to deceive us.Yet another reason why ones choice of an internet security program is a crucial one,and one that should be carefully considered.I'll sleep well at night knowing that Webroot has us covered should anything drop and attempt to excute.
    OH how right you are my friend.  That is true of almost all scams, from internet based, to snail mail based, to door to door.  (A common one around here happens every summer: door to door advertising of driveway sealing using 'what will be left over from a full load when the close by job will only use about 1/2 of the load'  You always get watered down useless sealant.  It costs 1/2 the price of a proper job yes, but they only use 10% of the materials that is actually needed.)
    superssjdan
    1 person likes this
    • superssjdan
      superssjdan

    Reply


    Terms & Conditions