14 DAY TRIAL // With reports about Valentine's Day spams, scams, worms and Trojans coming in as early as the 11th of January, it's a wonder that cyber criminals haven't cooled down and remained contempt with the batch of malware that they have already sent out. I mean they could have taken the day off just to enjoy the miraculous time of sharing and receiving love like most of the world is right now.
This time, it's a little more than the usual "don't do that, you might end up regretting it" that security companies have been throwing at us with the best intent. When the Federal Bureau of Investigation stomps its foot and says something, you gotta listen no matter what. The FBI warned against the Valentine's Day correspondence and pointed out that the Storm Worm was nothing to trifle with. You're literally one click away from being a part of one of the world's most productive illegal organizations.
Russian security vendor Kaspersky has recorded a spike of spam this morning and immediately issued a press release: "Kaspersky Lab has detected a large-scale global mass mailing of Valentine's Day spam. [?] The message currently accounts for about 5 percent of all mail traffic checked by Kaspersky Hosted Security Services." The message sent invites users to click on a link to a supposed selection of Valentine's Day e-cards, but the end result is the downloading of "Win32.Tibs.", a Trojan. You're clear of the Storm Worm, but you're still infected.
It's a perennial security story, every season brings it's very own kind of spam email. Winter comes with Christmas 'gifts' and Valentine's 'love', Spring comes bearing Easter 'bunnies', Summer's full of holidays and I wouldn't even know where to begin, and Autumn has its batch of malware linked to good ol' Saint Nick and more. Stay on the safe side!