Beware Paddy's Day Charms - ESET

St. Patrick's Day Set 2 Bring Luck O' The Irish To Spammers & Con Artists

Cybercriminals are known for keeping  sharp eyes on the holiday calendar, so they don't ever miss a chance to catch some more unsuspecting victims with seasonal phishing attempts.

They are always hoping to find unprotected computer users  open to being infected with lots of nasty malware.

In previous years anti-Virus supplier ESET has seen some lovely St. Patrick's Day e-greeting cards being sent, which ask people to pass on some Irish luck to their friends.   

These  seemingly innocuous little greetings like the 'harmless' charm shown here, served several purposes for the scammers.

Firstly, they were used to harvest millions of e-mail addresses for spamming. Secondly, some e-cards also carried malware, which infected computers as soon as the victims clicked on them.

Paddy's Day threats are likely to expand seriously this year. ESET's latest lab reports reveal  that 200,000 new and unique binary malicious files are released into the wild every single day.

That is double what we were seeing only six months ago! That means that by the time you finish reading this, another 140 new malicious files will be ready to infect you.

ESET therefore recommends you do not open or click on any St. Patrick's Day e-mails, even if they appear to come from your friends' addresses. Also make sure your operating system is fully patched and your antivirus program updated!

Just don't say you weren't warned.

Visit Reflex - ESET Distributor in Ireland

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