You may not have been fooled by claims of love from anonymous email correspondents nor messages purportedly from Paypal urging you to check your security settings and sending you via their servers in Russia to verify your password, but would you be sucked in by this missive, which could appeal to anyone’s vanity, especially if they post a lot of photos on the web:
“Hello,
Your photograph has reached editing stage as part of an article we are
publishing for our February edition of the Guardians business section.
Can you check over the format and get back to us with your approval or
any changes?
If the picture is not to your liking then please send a preferred one.
We’ve attached the photo with the article here.
Kind regards,
William Morrison
Editor
www.Guardian.com”
This message (there are variations on the theme) came with a zip file attachment containing a rather malicious piece of software that goes by the name of Troj/Stinx-N. According to Sophos this worm “Turns off anti-virus applications, Allows others to access the computer, Downloads code from the internet, Reduces system security, Installs itself in the Registry”
The smoking gun, of cours, is that line “If the picture is not to your liking then please send a preferred one.” Anyone in the trade would know immediately that this was not a message from any real editor. Editors very, very, very, very, very, very, rarely give photographers (or writers, come to that) the option of submitting a “preferred” piece after editorial attention has already been given to the original submission. It just doesn’t happen.
You have been warned!
The bottom line is: DON’T OPEN EMAIL ATTACHMENTS
(unless you’re absolutely certain they’re genuine and can verify their veracity)
Check out the sciencebase site for more on spyware, trojans and worms