Behind the veil of swine flu

Information Can Be Dangerous

Since the internet is one of the most popular sources of information, cyber-criminals are taking advantage of the opportunity to have their way with the unsuspecting public.

While reputable sources, such as the Center for Disease Control, use the internet as a convenient and speedy method to inform concerned information seekers, cyber-criminals have developed a malicious file also targeting these people— but the objective is not to inform them.

According to Symantec, the file is a real PDF entitled “Swine influenza frequently asked questions.” When it is opened, internet users see a list of “frequently asked questions” and answers.

While thinking that they are getting informed, readers are actually falling prey to InfoStealer, a program that captures sensitive information such as passwords.

Celebrity news is big business on the internet. Angelina Jolie and swine flu is a combination of words that can intrigue massive numbers of people. It is also another recipe for disaster.

Spammers know that they can entice people by connecting celebrities with the virus. However, internet users are not as likely to know that they may only be a click of away from another sort of infection.

Interpol warns that “around three to four percent of spam mails currently being circulated are related to the swine flu, with this number expected to increase.”

The agency also warns that such emails and links “should be treated with extreme caution.”

Mayur Kulkarni of Symantec says that in the past, current event spam campaigns included malicious messages that lured email users to click malicious links. “However, this time around it is an email address that the spammers are more interested in collecting—perhaps as part of a harvest for their future campaigns.”

The most popular terms in this celebrity spam campaign include Angelina Jolie, Madonna, Salma Hayek, and Hollywood. And many of the links that accompany such spam lead to pharmacy sites.

Convenient Cures

People who go online looking to prevent and treat the swine flu, or who are enticed by the offers they encounter, make themselves targets for financial opportunists. Online pharmacies and remedy peddlers are ready and waiting to cash in.

TCM Discovery, for example, is an internet site that is littered with poor English but claims to sell Herbal Tea that prevents and cures the swine flu.

Customers are urged to send an email or fax to confirm an order and then to “transfer your kind [of] money to our bank…before or after you have received the medicines.”

Interpol, the FDA, and the Federal Trade Commission are alerting the public to be wary of such internet sites and promotions.

There are only two drugs approved to treat the swine flu, Relenza and Tamiflu.

“Consumers who purchase products to treat the virus that are not approved, cleared, or authorized by the FDA, risk their health and the health of their families,” said Michael Chappell, acting FDA Associate Commissioner for Regulatory Affairs.”

People are advised to be wary of buying even the approved medications online.

“Any product which can be manufactured can be counterfeited…” says Jean-Michel Louboutin of Interpol.

The public needs to understand that the swine flu presents more than just the threat of bodily infection.

“Protect yourselves and your computer from the human swine that prey on our desire for information to keep us healthy,” says Kevin Haley of Symantec.

Michelle Smith for RT