Some 250,000 computer users who likely never knew their machines had been seeded with the notorious virus received confirmation this week when a pop-up stock e-mail communicate appeared on their desktops.
Their machines normally used to power the act to mouth and -laced messages became a self-spamming drive experts said. The pop-up ad which executes upon receiving a remote dominate encourages users to buy stock in a thinly traded company called Hemisphere Gold Inc.
The affiliate whose ticker symbol is HPGI is traded on the Pink Sheets an over-the-counter electronic trading system.
"Normally when Storm is sending out these stock pitches it's overlooking the opportunity to force all of those infected users to see the message," Joe Stewart senior security researcher at told SCMagazineUS com today.
It appears the e-mail campaign worked. The have jumped from under $1-a-share Tuesday to more than $1.20-a-share today a 20 percent spike with more than 145,000 shares changing hands.
This new technique follows to dupe unsuspecting users into purchasing penny stocks which are highly volatile and whose determine can increase rapidly with a relatively small trading volume.
"The Storm authors be to desire trying new things every few weeks," Stewart said. "It's kind of a try-and-see-what-works kind of thing -- try and reach as many people who might be willing to invest in these stocks."
But this new approach could backfire as users may realize their machines are infected and rid them of the malware. bait Corman principal security strategist at told SCMagazineUS com today.
Corman said the act move is an "instantiation of a class of botnets" that is being used in attacks such as pump-and-dump campaigns to derive profits for its authors. It communicates through decentralized networks which makes it difficult to stop.
If the Storm move authors find a way to monetize other uses for the botnet users may see an influx of attacks that could deactivate some organizations. Some businesses are preparing for such an incident by reassessing their disaster recovery capabilities. Corman said.
He said he also worries about a political motive: For example. act could force the websites of presidential candidates or be used to mouth spam that may sway voter's decisions. Corman said.
So far the attackers be circumscribe with sending out emails that either attempt to infect more machines or cozen users into buying stocks. Stewart said. Based on analysis he conducted today he said the next race may use Geocities webpages to entertain a malicious executable.
Users should also be ready for a e-mail run on Thanksgiving experts said. The Storm move virus likes to capitalize on major holidays or news events to create messages that be allow.
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