Recent warnings from security researchers have been posted in regards to thousands of fake CNN.com News emails being sent that contains links to phishing sites.
The phishing site that these recent fake CNN News messages lead you too resembles the real CNN.com world web page. If you continue to the phishing page you will notice it offers the viewing of a video that is supposed to be of an Al Jezeera English Report. This leads you to a popup message asking you to download a new Flash Player. As we know with previous fake flash player downloads is that it usually contains some form of malware. In this case, the flash player comes in the form of the executable file "Adobe_Player.exe".
Fake flash player downloads is a very effective method for hackers to spread malware. The use of fake CNN.com messages is nothing new either as this should be another warning to all computer users to never download Adobe Flash Player from any site other than Adobe.com.
Below is an image of the current spam message and phishing site that leads to the download of Trojans.
[images souce: trendmicro blog]
The phishing attack may result in the installation of the TROJ_DLOADR.QK and TROJ_INJECT.ZZ Trojans. Also, a rootkit may be installed where your computer could be compromised and personal information stolen. The rootkit was identified by Trendmicro as TROJ_ROOTKIT.FX.
Would you recognize the CNN.com website image above as a normal CNN.com site or a phishing site?