Osama Bin Laden’s death is an opportunity for cyber-criminals to very rapidly spread viruses through email messages including false images of him. They use latest news as the recent earthquake and tsunami in Japan as bait for their target. Cyber-criminals created the very same day web sites, emails, advertisement pop-ups, etc. whereby they tried to get funds to help the victims of the disaster.

Up to now, there are no official photos or videos of the body of Bin Laden, so, if you get messages inviting you to view them, don´t trust them and be careful! In some cases, when you open these messages, you will be asked to give your personal or bank details or you will be warned that your PC is infected and encourage you to download a fake antivirus. This fake antivirus will then contain a trojan or worm which will install on your computer, allowing information theft.

This increase in trojan attacks taking advantage of latest news is well reflected on the first semester 2011 PandaLabs* Virus Report.
His spokesman Luis Corrons indicates that: “These first three months have witnessed some particularly intense virus activity and there have been a number of serious incidents during this period, such as: the largest single attack against Android cell phones or intensive use of Facebook to distribute malware.

There has been a new surge in the number of IT threats in circulation: in the first three months of the year, there was a daily average of 73,000 new samples of malware.

Once again, over this quarter Trojans have accounted for most new threats, some 70 percent of all new malware created. Yet there is logic to this, as these types of threats are favored by organized criminals for stealing bank details with which to perpetrate fraud or steal directly from victims’ accounts.

Finally, remember that the best defense against all types of cyber-attacks is to maintain good practises regarding your personal data when surfing the Internet, access trusted sources and to have an up-to-date antivirus.

Why not try one of our free antivirus programs. They offer the best protection against viruses and software designed to steal your information.  If you are not sure about something during the installation or update processes, don’t leave it for later. Look for the appropriate solution in the support forums available to you for any queries you might have.