Cybercriminals exploit Barack Obama victory

Cybercriminals have been seeking to capitalise on the result of the 2008 US presidential election with a mass malicious email campaign.

Attackers are sending several variations of malicious email lures throughout the world directing recipients to click on a link to view a video showing an interview with the advisors to the US President-elect Barack Obama or view a portion of his acceptance speech. Clicking on the link directs users to a malicious website that infects them with information-stealing malware. “The US election has been closely watched by people worldwide making it an ideal topic to use as a lure by cybercriminals seeking to steal information from unsuspecting victims,” said Dan Hubbard, chief technology officer at security specialists Websense. “We are seeing many variations of this attack and the numbers of emails are growing by the thousands by the hour.”