Spam doesn’t always mean "malware”
June 4, 2008
The technical support service of Doctor Web, Ltd. started receiving requests from users concerned by e-mail messages prompting to change certificates used to access Yandex.Mail and Yandex.Money services popular in Russia. Some anti-virus vendors rushed to add a corresponding entry to their virus databases. However, we'd like to settle down the growing concern among Internet users: Dr.Web anti-virus doesn't consider such messages to be malicious because they do not contain malicious code.
Indeed spam traffic often spreads viruses, Trojans and other malware. Recently spammers have been exploiting popular Internet brands of the RuNet. Though harmless for end-users such mailings may badly affect credibility of an exploited resource, cause panic, tarnish the reputation of a competitor on the market and take away customers.
The detailed analysis of the code by the anti-virus lab of Doctor Web, Ltd. showed that files spread with the messages are not malware. Unlike some other vendors Doctor Web, Ltd. deliberately avoids adding such corrupt files to the virus database. So the size of updates remain small and the anti-virus maintains its efficiency.
Though this particular mailing is harmless a user should be careful. Following a couple of simple precaution rules will help you avoid cyber-fraud:
- Do not trust messages asking for confirmation of a password or data related to your credit card – no respected company will ask you to do such a thing via e-mail.
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Do not follow suspicious links unless checked by the free plugin Dr.Web Link Checkerf or a browser you’re using. Such a check will make your surfing safer.
Dr.Web users are surely protected against traps set by Internet criminals. Customers of other anti-virus vendors who are still worried that they may have a virus undetected on their computers can calm themselves and make use of the free anti-virus utility Dr.Web CureIt!. However, if you have received a message with a corrupt file it won’t be detected as a virus by Dr.Web CureIt! just because it is not.
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