14 DAY TRIAL // Cybercriminals seem to find new tricks to deploy Ebola-themed scams, and in one of their latest efforts, they created a tool that claims to warn users of an outbreak of the disease in a nearby area.
In order to benefit from such a "service," users need to download and install an application on the computer. Probably to make the user download the file quicker and not think about the action, a siren begins to sound and the only way to stop it is to save the file to disk.
At the moment, the file is detected as malicious by a number of 18 antivirus engines out of the 53 listed on VirusTotal, but initially the detection was minimum.
Jovi Umawing of Malwarebytes has analyzed the file and has found that it adds the ONLY Search toolbar to the system during installation, along with a slew of other offers, most probably part of an affiliate marketing campaign that puts money in the pockets of the crooks for each program installation.
After installing the programs forced to the user, the browsing experience is disrupted in multiple ways, from changing the search engine to loading affiliate websites when opening a new browser tab, or a page offering even more programs to download, the researcher says.
Apart from this, the system performance is visibly affected, and shortcuts of the unwanted programs added to the system are placed on the desktop.
Ebola-themed scams are regular these days and it is up to the user to avoid falling into the crooks’ trap; simply take a minute to think about it and keep in mind that reputed media outlets would be the first ones to report any development regarding the Ebola virus disease and its occurrence in new areas.
Two weeks ago, the US-CERT (Computer Emergency Readiness Team) issued a warning about the increasing number of scams taking advantage of the prevalence of Ebola news.