Fake LinkedIn Accounts Created To Mimic Popular Celebrity Profiles For The Purpose of Spreading Malware
Another malware campaign is taking place through fake LinkedIn profiles that impersonate celebrities so that hackers may trick users into clicking on fake media links that download malware. The hackers are not stopping at anything. From the Twitter hacking of high profile accounts to recent LinkedIn attacks, social networks are being attacked by hackers infecting thousands of computer users over the internet by exploiting popular celebrities.
Fake LinkedIn profiles have been setup that are already indexed by Google where it they may be getting traffic from certain search keywords. Discovered by security researchers, an internet search for "Brooke Hogan Naked picts" or "Keri Russell nude" may result in pulling up one of the fake LinkedIn accounts in your search results.
With the number of fake LinkedIn accounts being created it is only inevitable that some computer users may fall victim downloading and installing malware from the malicious links on each profile. We can only forewarn everyone to be cautions of visiting social sites including LinkedIn. It seems many social sites are the target of cyberattacks lately and unfortunately we should expect more attacks from different angles.
LinkedIn staff has been in the process of removing many of the bogus profiles which have only been created within the past few days at a steady rate. One of the files detected as being dropped via the malicious links provided in bogus LinkedIn profiles was TubePlayer.ver.6.20885.exe. This executable file is known to infect computers with a Trojan identified as Win32/Renos.gen!BB which is a Trojan Downloader. Trojan Downloaders such as this one have the ability to download or install other malware onto the affected system. Once again, it is important to use caution at all times when utilizing business or social networks that are accessed by thousands or millions over the internet. There is bound to be a number of hackers who are awaiting to attack them if not already.
Do you have a LinkedIn profile? If someone was to mimic Brad Pitt's profile on LinkedIn in order to spread malware, how long would it take to infect one thousand computer users?