Another Google Earth video - this time starring Britney Spears

Filed Under: Malware, SophosLabs, Spam, Video, Vulnerability

We had a great response to the blog entry we posted yesterday, describing how we have used Google Earth to track malware and spam campaigns around the world.

Some of you have asked for a better look at the malware campaign trail we followed - so we have produced another video:

View the "Sophos, Spam, Trojans and Britney Spears" video on YouTube.

The example we are using on this occasion is a malware attack that took place in April 2007, where emails were spammed out containing a saucy photograph of troubled pop princess Britney Spears. The spams were sent, as usual by compromised PCs working as a botnet around the world, inviting users to click on the image if they wanted to see more of Britney.

Clicking on the picture, however, took computers to a hacked website which exploited Microsoft's Animated Cursor exploit, and then downloaded a series of other malware before finally installing a banking Trojan horse that sent passwords and usernames to a hacker in Brazil.

About the author

Graham Cluley has worked in the computer security industry for more than 20 years, developing anti-virus software and doing quite a lot of talking about internet threats. He's won awards for his blogging, but is proudest of the text adventure games he wrote when he was still wearing short trousers. You can learn more about those (the games, not the trousers) at grahamcluley.com. Send Graham an email, subscribe to his updates on Facebook, follow him on Twitter and App.net, and circle him on Google Plus for regular updates.