How the iPhone 5 Hype Can Get a PC Infected with Malware

Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant at Sophos, is sounding the alarm over a piece of malware that comes by way of a fake iPhone 5 email. Luckily for Mac users, the virus only targets unwary Windows PC owners.

Coming off a bit of ironic - as the Apple-centric email leads to Windows PC malware - the scam is almost identical to the one I reported on back in May, just before Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference.

The imagery is the same, as in not at all convincing for those tracking Apple in the news, but fairly elusive to the untrained eye - a translucent iPhone concept. The email dubs it iPhone 5GS, a mashup of all the potential new iPhones Apple could announce today.

Where do you put that, this time around, the scam delivers what has been confirmed as first-class malware. The people at Sophos are naming it Mal/Zapchas-A.

“Apple's iPhone 5 is due to be revealed to the world tomorrow, which makes today the perfect opportunity for cybercriminals to take advantage of the excitement and exploit it for their own ends,” writes Graham Cluley, security expert.

Cluley attributes the finding to a journalist who decided to take a screenshot of the email and post it to Twitter to warn followers about it.

Sophos took the matter seriously and decided to look a little deeper.

“Clicking on links in the email takes you to some Windows malware (lucky Mac fans are being ignored by the hackers on this occasion) which Sophos detects as Mal/Zapchas-A,” Mr. Cluley writes.

Needless to point out, Macs will carry the malware even if they can’t get infected.

“Apple product announcements are always big news. And I think we have to accept that it's likely that whenever Apple is scheduled to reveal new technology that cybercriminals will try to exploit the interest,” Mr. Cluley concludes.