Stratfor subscribers sent malware

The devastating breach of global affairs firm Stratfor last last year continues to reap rewards for its purveyors.

As members of Anonymous sort through the 5.2 million plundered emails to find evidence of secret correspondences among the intelligence, military and government sectors, more financially motivated hackers are again on the attack.

The Microsoft Malware Protection Center reported malware was sent via email to 860,000 addresses contained in the stolen subscriber list.

Security researcher Rodel Finones said the emails arrive with an attachment, titled "stratfor.pdf." Clicking on the attachment opens a letter directed to "Stratfor readers" that, ironically, claims to warn them of the possibility that phishers may send them emails containing viruses. 

To remedy themselves, recipients are encouraged to click on a dubious link contained in the letter, one which leads to a compromised site hosted overseas, possibly in Turkey or Poland, which attempts to distribute a variant of the Zbot, or Zeus, trojan.

Zbot is known for its ability to siphon information from a compromised user's machine.

Kyle Rhodes, a Stratfor spokesman, could not be immediately reached for comment.

This article originally appeared at scmagazineus.com