An IT security firm has been tracking malicious cyber-campaigns that started in the hours after the official announcement that the Duchess of Cambridge was in labour. The campaigns detected so far are using email lures, which redirect unsuspecting victims to Blackhole Exploit Kit URLs or, indeed, provide malicious attachments in the form of Windows SCR files in an attempt to dupe users.
Curiosity around the future heir to the British throne is reaching new levels with the BBC reporting that Monday was the biggest global day and second biggest UK day ever for BBC News online with 19.4m unique browsers globally and 10.8m from the UK.
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Carl Leonard, Senior Security Research Manager EMEA at IT security firm Websense, says: “Media hysteria in the wake of the birth of the Royal baby has seen global internet audience figures go through the roof providing a picture-perfect scenario for cybercriminals looking to capitalise on people’s curiosities. Malware authors have been waiting many months for this announcement so it’s no surprise that malicious campaigns were observed whist the public attention was at fever pitch. Malware using these techniques operate across a range of stages in the attack lifecycle. This requires company defenses to have multiple layers, properly deployed and integrated in real-time across web, email, social and mobile vectors to protect itself.
“So whilst George Alexander Louis is third in line for the throne, without the right protection, it seems your company could be the next in line for the most recent malicious cyber threat.”
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