Malicious Campaign Targets Indian Users

In a recent study by Symantec to check infestation of malicious attacks, it has been observed that a recent malicious spam campaign focussed on users in India.

Cybercriminals, in order to steal information, send emails with an attachment. These emails contained a malicious attachment, detected as Spyware “Redpill”. This includes authorization for social networking accounts, bank account details, emails written on compromised computers and screenshots. Upon opening these attached files, users receive a message showing the file is corrupted. Thus, the malware gets executed and tries to steal confidential information of the user.

Abhijit Limaye, Director of Development and Security Response, Symantec, said, "The stolen information is sent to an email account hardcoded into the program. In our investigations, we found details of the email account used by the attacker to receive the stolen data. For instance, it received over 12,000 emails in March 2013."

He added, "It is clear from this that the people behind this scheme are not looking for information on hundreds of cheating spouses, but are instead after valuable personal information and account details."

Symantec has recommended users not to open unknown attachments, make sure that best security practices are followed, ensure that the most up-to-date software patches are in place and use the latest technologies and virus definitions for the best protection against threats.