{"id":21743,"date":"2016-02-25T10:16:35","date_gmt":"2016-02-25T02:16:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.upgrademag.com\/web\/?p=21743"},"modified":"2016-02-24T16:21:05","modified_gmt":"2016-02-24T08:21:05","slug":"zika-virus-outbreak-concerns-used-to-spread-malware","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.upgrademag.com\/web\/2016\/02\/25\/zika-virus-outbreak-concerns-used-to-spread-malware\/","title":{"rendered":"Zika virus outbreak concerns used to spread malware"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

On February 1, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC) in response to the outbreak of the Zika virus and its associated birth defects in the Americas. Since this declaration, Symantec Security Response has observed a malicious spam campaign seeking to capitalize on the global interest in what the director of the WHO calls an \u201cextraordinary event.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

The country most notably affected by cases involving the Zika virus is Brazil, so it comes as no surprise that one of the first cases involving Zika-related malicious spam would focus on Brazilian citizens.<\/p>\n

\"Description:
\nFigure 1. Malicious spam email in Portuguese, delivered to Brazilians<\/em><\/p>\n

The malicious spam email claims to be from Sa\u00fade Curiosa (Curious Health), a popular website in Brazil. The subject of the email says, \u201cZIKA VIRUS ! ISSO MESMO, MATANDO COM \u00c1GUA!\u201d which translates to: \u201cZIKA VIRUS ! THAT SAME KILLING WITH WATER !\u201d The email itself uses imagery and text taken from a real article on Sa\u00fade Curiosa<\/a>, but includes buttons and attachments to try to capture the recipient\u2019s attention, such as \u201cEliminating Mosquito! Click Here!\u201d and \u201cInstructions To Follow! Download!\u201d as well as a file attachment.<\/p>\n

\"Description:<\/p>\n

Figure 2. Links in malicious spam email lead to a file hosted on Dropbox<\/em><\/p>\n

The links behind these buttons lead to the URL shortening service Bitly, which redirects to the file hosting service Dropbox. Symantec products detect both the file hosted on Dropbox and the file attached to the email as JS.Downloader<\/a>. Once a user is infected with JS.Downloader, it will attempt to download additional malware onto the compromised computer.<\/p>\n

Newsworthy events on a regional or global level often provide fertile ground for cybercriminals seeking to capitalize on the interest in these events. In this case, the Zika virus\u2019 impact in countries like Brazil is being leveraged, while the potential impact in other countries make it a prime candidate for more malicious spam.<\/p>\n

Symantec Security Response warns users to be aware of unsolicited messages about the Zika virus and to follow best practices.<\/p>\n

For instance, for information about the Zika virus, visit the World Health Organization\u2019s website<\/a>. Also, always look for trusted news sources, regionally and globally, for additional information.\u00a0Avoid clicking on links or opening attachments in unsolicited email messages. Lastly, run security software on your computer and ensure that it is up to date.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The country most notably affected by cases involving the Zika virus is Brazil, so it comes as no surprise that one of the first cases involving Zika-related malicious spam would focus on Brazilian citizens.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":21744,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,25],"tags":[54,535,560,274,96],"class_list":["post-21743","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-headlines","category-software","tag-security","tag-software-2","tag-spam","tag-symantec","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.upgrademag.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21743","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.upgrademag.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.upgrademag.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.upgrademag.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.upgrademag.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21743"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.upgrademag.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21743\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.upgrademag.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21744"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.upgrademag.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21743"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.upgrademag.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21743"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.upgrademag.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21743"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}