When Kate Middleton, the Duchess of Cambridge, went into labor with the child who recently became third in line for the throne of England, the event immediately had millions of royal-watchers riveted – and, apparently, plenty of spammers ready to leverage the vast amount of public interest in everything from the sex of the baby to “secret pictures” of the new arrival.
The social engineering aspects of the story are simply pregnant with possibilities (ahem).
“Malware authors worldwide have been waiting ages for this,” security blogger Graham Cluley told the Register, noting that spear phishing emails with themes like “Exclusive first pictures”, “Secret video from inside delivery room” and “Sex revealed” are sure to rope some royal baby fans into a malware trap.
Will and Kate were used as malware bait before when they were engaged, and proved that, as with any hot story, it pays to be very careful where one surfs around for news. Malware authors are also aware of the process of search-engine optimization (SEO) and often exploit big stories to create malicious webpages that attack unaware visitors who are simply looking for news and information.
SOURCE:infosecurity-us.com
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