“Hello kitten” – malware spammed out in sexy picture email

Do you know anyone who might call you “kitten”?

Do you have a woman from your past (I assume she’s a woman as she signs herself off as ‘your mistress’), with only the loosest grasp of the English language?

Is she in the habit of sending you sexy photos?

If you answered yes to any of the above questions, then you might be at risk of a virus infection – especially if you receive an email with the subject line “I am free… :)” looking like this:

Whatever you do – don’t open that attachment. Even though it pretends to be a digital photograph made on a Pentax camera, it’s nothing of the sort.

The email isn’t really from an old flame, and the attached file isn’t really a sexy photo but a copy of the Troj/Agent-ICW Trojan horse.

Combining good security products with an attitude of “think with your head, not with your trousers” should provide your computer with a higher level of defence.

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Read more in my article on the Naked Security website.

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Graham Cluley •   @gcluley

Graham Cluley is a veteran of the anti-virus 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 security analyst, he regularly makes media appearances and is an international public speaker on the topic of computer security, hackers, and online privacy. Follow him on Twitter at @gcluley, on Mastodon at @[email protected], or drop him an email.