Postcards from a family member really contain malware

SophosLabs has intercepted a widespread attack by hackers who have spammed out a Trojan horse posing as an electronic greeting card from a family member.

The emails have the following characteristics:

Subject line: Postcard from a Family Member
Attached file: ecard.zip (which contains a file called ecard.exe)

Part of the email’s message body reads:

Your family member has sent you an ecard from 123greetings.com. Send free ecards from 123greetings.com with your choice of colors, words and music. Your ecard will be available with us for the next 30 days. If you wish to keep the ecard longer, you may save it on your computer or take a print. To view your ecard, open zip attached file.

The attached ZIP file, contains a malicious executable file which Sophos detects proactively as …

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, Threads, Bluesky, or drop him an email.