14 DAY TRIAL // With the Euro 2008 championship quickly approaching, people around the world search the web for sites that could help them buy a ticket for one of their national team's matches. However, searching the web for such a page may have a different result, other than what you would expect: a nice-looking and apparently clean website that attempts to drop some sort of malware on every vulnerable computer. The website was actually clean but due to some hackers, it got compromised and it now attempts to infect visitors' systems.
Fraser Howard, SophosLabs UK, wrote that the malicious file supposed to be installed on people's computers is Mal/ObfJS-R, a malware which was first detected on the web last year. "The script is intended to load further malicious content from a remote site. However, initial analysis suggests the script is somewhat buggy, perhaps broken whilst being obfuscated?" the Sophos expert noted.
What's worse is that the website has a pretty high PageRank so searching for Euro 2008 tickets will surely get it among the results. Moreover, there's a sponsored link bought by its administrators which may attract even more visitors than we expect. According to the Sophos employee, the administrators could not be contacted so extra-care is recommended when visiting the website.
"The site is likely to attract high numbers of visitors as the championships get closer, and I have had no luck in trying to resolve the issue (contact via email and telephone has thus far been fruitless)," Fraser Howard noted.
Just like usual, don't forget to keep your antivirus or security software up to date with the latest virus definitions and avoid visiting websites that may look suspicious. And remember, Euro 2008 is only about playing football, not getting your computer infected...