Themed malware on the rise, experts say

Written by Paul Sells

Online fraud is being increasing linked to major events on the social calendar, IT outsourcing users have been warned.

Last month, Sunbelt Software claimed that Halloween-themed malware is become more common, after the past two years saw a rise in hacking attacks linked to the event.

This was echoed in recent research by Panda Security, which found that thousands of websites were created by hackers and ranked high in search engines, in a bid to infect users who clicked onto them.

Luis Corrons, technical director at security software firm, said that there has been a general rise in hacking techniques and malware which are linked to topical events, citing swine flu, Michael Jackson's death and Valentine's Day as examples.

Explaining their effectiveness, he commented: "The user won't be able to recognise that the link is malicious, that's why the cybercriminals are launching these kinds of attacks."

The expert also suggested that companies make use of web filtering products in order to protect themselves from the dangers of malicious webpages.