Bin Laden death leads to new malware threats

Breaking news from ihotdesk, IT Security Solutions in London

Posted by Jessie Richards

The death of Osama Bin Laden has led to a rise in malware scams, particularly on social networking websites, it has been claimed.

Security company Sophos has warned users of sites like Facebook and Twitter to be particularly cautious of messages and news feed updates that claim to offer new details about the Al-Qaeda leader.

Commenting on behalf of the firm, Paul Ducklin said: "Many of the links you see will be perfectly legitimate links, but at least some are almost certain to be dodgy links, deliberately distributed to trick you into hostile internet territory."

He added that 'booby trapped' links could take users to sites hosting malicious scripts that could pose a threat to IT security.

David Marcus of McAfee added that the death of Bin Laden is "just too good a lure" for cybercriminals not to take advantage of.

GFI Software recently indicated that six of the top ten current malware threats at trojans, underlining the need for robust IT security software.