Malware attack spread as email from your office’s HP scanner

In these high-tech times, scanners and photocopiers aren’t just dumb machines sitting in the corner of the office.

They are usually connected to the corporate network, and – in some cases – can even email you at your desk to save you having to wear out your shoe leather.

And it’s precisely this functionality that we have seen cybercriminals exploiting today, pretending that their malicious emails in fact come from an HP scanner inside your organisation.

Here’s a typical example of the emails we have been intercepting at SophosLabs:

Subject: Re: Scan from a Hewlett-Packard ScanJet 4952740

Message body:
Attached document was scanned and sent to you using a Hewlett-Packard I-56919SL.

SENT BY: SHERRIL
PAGES: 7
FILETYPE: .DOC [Word2003 File]

As you’ll see in the next example, the precise wording (the names and numbers used) can vary from email to email. But each of the…

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.