Something “completely different” – Independence Day trojan

Malware writers are out to cash in on the Independence Day celebrations of United States. A new email in circulation poses itself as a July Four greeting card sent by a friend of yours, only to infect your computer with a Trojan that can make the PC dependent on the author of the malware.
 
The subject lines of the bait mail are varied and are picked randomly from an embedded list. Celebrate Your Independence, Fourth of July Party, God Bless America and Happy B-Day USA are some of them.
 
Once a victim clicks on the link inside the email to view the purported greeting card, she is taken to a bot computer hosting a Trojan Downloader named “JS.Agent.kd’. This malware then tries to bring in more harmful code from the Internet, which can open a backdoor in the compromised computer. For its spreading routine, the Trojan Downloader harvests email addresses from the victim’s computer and sends the malicious mail to all contacts found.
 
“Malware writers are quite smart in exploiting the flavor of the season,” says Rohini Sonawane, Chief Operating Officer of MicroWorld Technologies. “Be it New Year celebrations, Valentine’s Day or now the Independence Day, marketing strategists of the corporate world have got a lesson or two to learn from these cyber criminals!”
 
“It’s quite common among computer users to send seasonal e-greetings to their friends and relatives and that makes some of them act without thinking twice when they get such bait mails. Many of the recent Virus attacks were even smarter as they exploited the Breaking News stories from around the world in order to lure potential victims. In here, the Virus writer knows that the shock and surprise of the mail recipient will push his common sense to back seat,” Rohini Sonawane points out.