Beware of "April Fools"

April Fools Malware Messages

Similar to earlier holiday messages, malware distributors are taking advantage of the atmosphere of April Fools’ Day to send “jokes” linking to malware sites. The messages are short text messages, with a hyperlink to a web site hosted at an IP address (usually indicative of a zombie outbreak).

Subject lines include:

• All Fools’ Day
• April Fools’ Day
• Doh! All’s Fool.
• Doh! April’s Fool.
• Gotcha!
• Gotcha! All Fool!
• Gotcha! April Fool!
• Happy All Fools!
• Happy April Fools!
• Happy Fools Day!
• Surprise!
• Today’s Joke!

Notice a trend in the subject lines?
This outbreak began the day before April Fools, on March 31, and has been massive. The Commtouch Detection Center identified hundreds of new web links associated with the attack each hour.

For the unlucky folks who click through the hyperlink, they reach a bare-bones web site with the graphic above, that tries to automatically download malware.

Please be careful and do not open up email that have any of the above subjects. (or the joke will be on you).