Posted by Miguel Corral Rivas October 01, 2009

We are all concerned, to one extent or another, about the new swine flu virus which is generating widespread alarm, and malware creators are wasting no time in exploiting this concern to spread malicious programs.

aIn this case they are using a Trojan, propagated massively via emails with messages about swine flu, to steal confidential information.

  1. These Trojans enter computers when users open a PowerPoint presentation (“Pos.exe”) claiming to expose a ‘great secret about the financial conspiracy involving pharmaceutical laboratories’.
  2. On running this attachment to emails, the Trojan is downloaded to the computer without the user’s knowledge, while the presentation is displayed on screen.
  3. This backdoor Trojan, called WinVNC.A, is designed specifically to steal confidential information from users and send it to the creator of the malware.

Panda Security advises users to ensure that their antivirus is kept up-to-date and not to run attachments from dubious sources.

Similarly, for those people who do catch swine flu or have to spend a few days at home as a precaution, these recommendations are just as important. 

Of course in this case, we hope you get well soon!!

Miguel Corral Rivas –  Expert Technician