Cyber criminals are taking advantage of swine flu fears with e-mails promising news on the illness which then infect computers with a virus, a Spanish computer security firm warned Friday.
The e-mails invite recipients to open a document with information claiming the H1N1 flu virus was developed by pharmaceutical firms seeking to make huge profits from the outbreak, Pandasecurity said in a statement.
But if the document is opened, a virus is installed on the person’s computer which can steal personal information like bank account data.
The amount of e-mails containing the virus circulating around the Internet exploded on Friday, the statement said.
Asked in an interview published in Spain last week about conspiracy theories that major pharmaceutical firms are behind the swine flu outbreak, the head of the World Health Organisation, Margaret Chan, said she “could not imagine” that they would be capable of generating a pandemic.
Somebody actually asked WHO if they created swine flu?
HAW!!!!!!!
I’d like a background story on said “journalist.”
spian?
erm.. “Spain?!?”
brazil haz …… …….
hee haw
there is no such thing as a “computer virus”!!!!!!!
these are windows viruses!!!!!!!!!!!!
lets get the facts straight
People are stupid things. Stick with Windows or use a secure operating system. Your choice.
Improbus said,
“People are stupid things.”
Point well taken.
I have used windows for years. I have in only had two virus infections since starting with windows 95. The reason is that I pay F’ing attention to what I do. Both times were issues that I caused. I use Vista on my laptop and gaming rig, 0 virus infection or malware. Oh and by the way not a single significant problem with Vista either. The belief that any operating system is inherently secure is false. IF apple controlled as much of the market as windows we would be having this fanboy discussion about how great windows is compared to apple. Yes I have and do own two mac books, are they nice Meh I’m not particularly impressed with any laptop I’ve owned they get used for the job. They are a tool for that use nothing more. They all do word processing, spread sheets, web connectivity, and email whoopdeedoo. Well enough logic, off to play team fortress II, just remember when clancys_daddy snipes you, I am old enough to be your daddy.
Great! I managed to avoid getting that nasty Swine Flu virus on my PC but when I clicked on the website of the security firm mentioned in the posting my anti-virus started reporting that my operating system had been infected with the “Spanish Fly” virus. Now it wants to interface with everything! HELP!