Large Hadron Collider used as malware bait

Stephen Withers
Tuesday, 24 November 2009 05:29

Opinion and Analysis

Major news events are often used to catch people in malware and phishing attacks. The successful startup of the Large Hadron Collider is no exception.

If the response to iTWire's report on the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is anything to go by, a lot of people are keen for news and information about this major science project.

So it comes as no surprise that the bad guys are using the LHC as bait for a malware attack.

According to security vendor Sophos, the attack starts with spam containing an apparently shortened URL purportedly pointing to a "realy [sic] cool" video.

But when you try to view the video, it turns out to be yet another attempt to pass off malware as a Flash update.

Ho hum… Don't you wish the crooks would get tired of this sort of thing? I suppose that'll only happen when enough people get wise to such tricks.