Blair spam rides on back of election frenzy

The email contains a trojan, luring the unwary into downloading its malicious code.

The email claims that screenshots are available of the hacked account allowing curious users to see what Tony Blair really says about his cabinet. Of course, it's just a ruse to download a virus.

"Clicking on the link takes users to a website which invisibly installs a trojan horse on the victim's computer," said Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant at Sophos. "This trojan horse then attempts to install other malicious code onto the infected computer and install a password stealer which can be used by hackers for grabbing sensitive information."

Tapping into public interest is a regular tactic for spammers. In April SC reported the death of Pope John Paul II had resulted in a wave of papal spam.

According to Cluley, the Tony Blair emails, spammed in the early hours of Friday morning across the UK, are indicative of spammer tactics.

"The computer underground knew that many in Britain would be following the latest political news this morning," he said. "And have deliberately created a bogus story about Blair's email account being hacked to lure people into clicking on the malicious link."

www.sophos.com