13 May,2009 07:52 AM IST | | Alisha Coelho
Search for the H1N1 virus on the Internet leads users to malicious websites with malware and Trojan files that can hack into your personal data
Netizens beware, there's a swine flu virus that you can catch even without a runny nose. While the recent swine flu scare is making people search for every piece of information on its prevention and cure, online security providers are advising caution when you surf the Internet.
Only last weekend, the Websense Security Labs ThreatSeeker Network detected that some sites offering information related to swine flu were hosting malware and sounded off an alert on their website. "We will be unable to guess the actual extent of the problem though a search on a popular search engine like Google returns a malicious website as high as the fifth result," said Manish Bansal, regional marketing manager, SAARC region, Websense.
Once the user clicks on the result, they are redirected to a spoof page where a screen pops up saying that a missing codec file needs to be downloaded to watch the video. The download, Websense warns, is actually a Trojan file, which can then help the host computer copy vital information from the unsuspecting user such as e-mail account passwords, online banking account information and credit card numbers.
Alerts
"There is no information about swine flu that the user was looking for. We had earlier sounded off alerts for spam mail where pharmaceuticals were trying to sell products related to swine flu, but this is far more dangerous, especially if one enters a lot of sensitive information online," said Bansal.
Users are advised to seek information only from recognised websites and refrain from downloading any files from unknown pages.
3 million Number of Internet users in Mumbai
61 Number of swine flu deaths across the world
