Bank robbing porn star Barack Obama joins Paris Hilton in online hall of shame

By Davey Winder
Thursday, 11 September 2008 07:20

Security

As if US Presidential hopeful Barack Obama didn't have enough to worry about, what with the lipstick on a pig debate and all, it now seems he has to contend with being labelled as a wannabe porn star and lined up alongside a naked Paris Hilton for good measure...

The gangs behind organised cybercrime campaigns are never slow to pick up on media trends, and the only real surprise about them linking Obama and sex is that it took them so long.

As iTWire has previously reported Barack Obama is no stranger to the Internet. He understands the power and reach it commands well enough. I suspect he understands it a little more now.

Quite what he, and his campaign machine, make of the fact that he has now joined the likes of Paris Hilton and is being used to grab end user email attention in order to spread bank robbing malware we can only guess at. Needless to say, I doubt that either are too pleased about it all.

Especially as the emails in question appear to come from an infonews@obama.com address which adds an air of authority, and an extra layer of political concern at a time when image is everything as the Presidential elections get ever closer in the US.

The spam campaign certainly seems to be picking up pace over the last couple of days, with the simple but effective subject line of 'Obama sex video' working wonders for the malware spreaders.

Open the email and you are confronted with the usual nudge nudge, wink wink, want to see some sexy pictures text to lure the unsuspecting loser into downloading the Mal/Hupig-D Trojan posing as a porn video (although  not featuring Barack Obama, or so I am told by a security researcher who swears he was forced to sit and watch it.)

Is this just another malware spam, or is there a touch of political smear thrown in? More on page 2...

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