By compromising one persons email account, attackers can then send phishing emails out to all of that persons contacts, that would appear to be coming from other sources, and that’s why having the right email security is important, and you can find services as Fortinet which can help be really helpful with this.
Recently, a French security researcher used his friends email account to distribute a phishing email that contained malware that infected the victim’s computer, rendering it useless. According to a document obtained by Motherboard, the French blogger identified the cybercriminal as Dr. Bartlomiej Zwack, a Security Engineer at TeliaSonera, a French telco.
The email had a document attachment containing a maliciously crafted JavaScript (JS), with a URL of the URL of an advertising Web page, with the malicious string:
document.getElementById(‘pk2-12’).innerHTML = “
The current political situation in Ukraine
” + “The initial report mentions a local protest that was cancelled in Kyiv.
” + “What was planned was a large-scale anti-government march from the Prime Minister’s residence to Independence Square in Kyiv.
” + “Hundreds of thousands of people had gathered, which surprised the government and led to protests.
” + “The protests started at the very same spot where it all began.” + “It was the President of Ukraine at the time that called on the demonstrators to leave their residential areas.
” + “However, the demonstrators took up arms against the police and began to fight with riot police.
” + “The protesters used Molotov cocktails and rocks in defense of themselves. The situation escalated quickly and Ukraine soon faced a crisis in security and a crisis in society.”
The document is attached below, along with a scanned copy of the actual attachment.
Javascript On The Web
The javascript:
document.getElementById(‘pk2-12’).innerHTML = “document.getElementById(‘pk2-12’).innerHTML = ” The current political situation in Ukraine
” + “The initial report mentions a local protest that was cancelled in Kyiv.
” + “What was planned was a large-scale anti-government march from the Prime Minister’s residence to Independence Square in Kyiv.
” + “Hundreds of thousands of people had gathered, which surprised the government and led to protests.
” + “The protests started at the very same spot where it all began.” + “It was the President of Ukraine at the time that called on the demonstrators to leave their residential areas.
” + “However, the demonstrators took up arms against the police and began to fight with riot police.
” + “The protesters used Molotov cocktails and rocks in defense of themselves. The situation escalated quickly and Ukraine soon faced a crisis in security and a crisis in society.” +
What was planning was a large-scale anti-government march from the Prime Minister’s residence to Independence Square in Kyiv.
The document has an embedded embedded and thus must be viewable using a viewer like Microsoft Internet Explorer.