Presumed iTunes Gift Certificate Contains Malware

PRESS RELEASE

Berlin, November 22, 2011 – The eleven Research Team has issued a warning against e-mails which promise a gift certificate for the popular Apple online music service iTunes. The e-mails have the subject line „iTunes Gift Certificate“ and promise a 50 dollar discount for everyone shopping at the iTunes Store using the code which is allegedly contained in the attachment. This, however, consists of a Zip file which contains executable files that install themselves into two separate Windows folders and which are activated with every Windows start. The malware is most likely a Trojan which opens a connection to a remote server from which it awaits further orders. From there it can download any kind of malware to the infected server.

The weeks before the holidays is a traditional time for spammer, phishers and malware distributors to exploit the interest in shopping bargains. This is particularly true for the days around Thanksgiving, including Black Friday and Cyber Monday, the biggest shopping days of the year in the United States.

eleven advises users to be particularly aware of potentially dangerous e-mails and recommends never to open attachments from unknown or not completely trustworthy senders.

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