Angelina Jolie, Prince George Of Cambridge Used As New Email Malware Bait

Angelina Jolie and Prince George are both hot topics these days, with one being named the highest paid actress in Hollywood recently and the other simply being born in this world. Any news about them seems to generate high interest among readers. So it's unsurprising that they are both being used as bait in a malware attack through fake news articles.

About two days after Angelina was declared the highest paid actress of 2013, a fake CNN news article about her Forbes recognition has started circulating online.

As discovered by ThreatTrack Security, the spam, sent as an email claiming to be from CNN, takes advantage of the A-list star's inclusion in the Forbes list to lure victims to click on links that will open a prompt dialogue for a faux Adobe Flash Player update for the reader to download ("update_flash_player.exe").

However, it's not an Adobe update, but a malicious software program identified as a variant of Zbot/Zeus, a Trojan that steals banking details.

The email looks legitimate, complete with the CNN logo and news layout.

Subject: CNN: Forbes: Angelina Jolie tops list of highest-paid actresses

Message body:

(EW.com) - She might not get paid as much as "Iron Man," but there's no doubt that celestial beauty Angelina Jolie is smiling all the way to the bank.

This year, Jolie topped Forbes' annual list of the highest-paid actresses in Hollywood with an incredibly robust $33 million.

Angelina has been called the "Queen of Spam" in 2008 by some Web sites because she was frequently used as a malware bait due to her enormous popularity.

But she's not the only one people should watch out for. Prince George Alexander Louis, Prince William and Kate Middleton's newborn baby, is also a favourite malware bait these days.

The spam is also in the form of an email purporting to be from CNN, with the subject: "Perfect gift for royal baby... a tree? Breaking News CNN."

Other forms include having the subject line of "The Royal Baby: Live Updates," and which has a fake link to view a video feed from the outside of the baby's hospital. The link will not go to a video feed, but to a Web site that installs malware.

The Australian Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy even issued a warning about email malware scams that involve the Prince of Cambridge. It advises receivers of these emails to delete them immediately.