News - Security Issues

Sea World killer whale attack video leads to malware

Dawn Brancheau, a trainer at Sea World in Orlando, was killed recently after being attacked by a killer whale.

News of the tragedy sped quickly around the world, and now sick cybercriminals are exploiting the story of 40-year-old Brancheau's death for their own commerical gain. Hackers have created webpages stuffed with content which appears to be ghoulish video footage of the animal trainer's death - but are really designed to infect visiting computers.

The hackers are taking advantage of the hot news story by popping up fake anti-virus (also known as scareware or rogue anti-virus) alerts. The alerts are designed to frighten unsuspecting users into believing there is a security problem with their computer, which could lead them into downloading dangerous software or handing over their credit card details.