Analysis by: Chloe Ordonia

Hot on the heels of the spam campaign that took advantage of the April 2013 Boston Marathon bombings, another spam attack is discovered by Trendlabs, this time leveraging the Texas Fertilizer Plant explosion that occurred only a few days after the tragedy. Completely similar in its scheme to the previous spam campaign, the spammed mail sports a subject relevant to the event, and promises the reader a video of the explosion itself. The body of the mail contains one single hyperlink, which, if clicked, redirects the reader to a page with embedded videos and at the same time downloading malicious files onto the user's system.

Users are once more reminded to anticipate spam campaigns similar to this to crop up during newsworthy events, and to never click or open anything that comes with them.
 SPAM BLOCKING DATE / TIME: April 18, 2013 GMT-8
 TMASE INFO
  • ENGINE:
  • PATTERN:9808