Fake LinkedIn spam attack

Starting on Monday, cyber criminals sent spam email messages targeting the LinkedIn social media community.

Victims are emailed an alert link with a fictitious social media contact request. These messages accounted for as much as 24% of all spam sent within a 15-minute interval.

Clicking the link, victims are taken to a web page that says “PLEASE WAITING…. 4 SECONDS” and redirects them to Google. During those four seconds, the victim’s PC is infected with the ZeuS data theft malware by a drive-by download. ZeuS embeds itself in the victim’s web browser and captures personal information, such as online banking credentials, and is widely used by criminals to pilfer commercial bank accounts.

Organizations should encourage individuals to delete such requests, especially if they do not know the name of the contact.

This is the second spam attack this month, preceded by the “Here You Have” email worm a few weeks ago. Cisco expects to see more spam messages containing malware sent to organizations to collect personal information.