Symantec warns of sophisticated World Cup malware

Symantec Hosted Services (SHS) is warning of yet more targeted World Cup-based malware attacks using increasingly sophisticated methods to infect victims and compromise corporate systems.

Tony Millington, malware operations engineer at SHS, explained in a blog post that the firm had intercepted 45 targeted malware emails headed for various Brazilian companies.

"This social engineering attack exploits the excitement surrounding the 2010 World Cup in South Africa to prompt recipients to take actions which may compromise their systems and corporate information," he wrote.

"One particularly interesting element of this targeted attack is the use of two attack modes: a PDF attachment and a malicious link."

The email claims legitimacy by purporting to come from a well known sportswear manufacturer, and includes a malicious PDF attachment and a link back to the server which can result in downloaded malware. This tactic effectively doubles the chance of success for the cyber criminals, Millington explained.

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