The Gmail and Hotmail spam email that could break your PC or laptop just by opening it
Email users have been warned to be careful of spam messages that could contain dangerous malware. Gmail, Hotmail, Outlook, and other users could be exposed to spam emails that could break their Windows, PC with just one click. The dangerous malware on the spam emails could steal sensitive personal and financial, data and also steal credentials for Windows and banking services.
According to Express, security experts have said that threat actors are taking advantage of a vulnerability that hasn’t been fixed yet by Microsoft to distribute the dangerous Qbot banking trojan malware. This malicious software has reportedly been found in infected Word documents that are being spread by email. The Qbot malware also apparently allows bad actors to deploy a backdoor on infected Windows machines as well as give remote access to ransomware gangs.
This threat was highlighted by researchers at Proofpoint, with the security firm’s Threat Insight Twitter account posting about the CVE-2022-30190 vulnerability. It said: “Proofpoint saw #TA570 exploiting CVE-2022-30190 to deliver #Qbot malware. The actor uses thread hijacked messages with HTML attachments which, if opened, drop a zip archive.
“Archive contains an IMG with a Word doc, shortcut file, and DLL. The LNK will execute the DLL to start Qbot. The doc will load and execute an HTML file containing PowerShell abusing CVE-2022-30190 used to download and execute Qbot.”
Scammers can get people to click on the infected attachment by sending fake invoices, payment and banking details, scanned documents, or bills. One scam even suggested that people had received a pay rise.
To help keep safe from these threats, you should not click on unsolicited emails from addresses you’re not aware of, and especially not on any links or attachments in such messages. You can usually spot a scam by taking a closer look at a sender’s email address.
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