DSC0173519.zip – spammed out malware attack poses as photo attachment

A stranger emails you out of the blue, offering you a digital photo of themselves.

What do you do?

Don’t risk it – and chuck the email straight in the trashcan?

or

Take a careful look at the email, to try to weigh up the chances of it being a malicious attack?

or

Open the attachment straight away – after all, the chances of peeking at a salacious photograph outweigh the consequences of a malware infection?

Here are the details of just such an email which has been spammed around the world:

Subject: I’m going to send you the Photos in
Attached file: DSC0173519.zip

Message body:
Hello Man,

I don’t know how to say it, but I’ve tryed before a long time to send you some photos, but I’ve thought that you aren’t interested to see me.
But now I’m going to send you the Photos in the Attachment.
Download the pictures and extract they, I’m sure that you will like…

Read more in my article on the Naked Security website.

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Graham Cluley •   @gcluley

Graham Cluley is a veteran of the cybersecurity industry, having worked for a number of security companies since the early 1990s when he wrote the first ever version of Dr Solomon's Anti-Virus Toolkit for Windows. Now an independent analyst, he regularly makes media appearances and is an international public speaker on the topic of cybersecurity, hackers, and online privacy. Follow him on Twitter, Mastodon, Bluesky, or drop him an email.