Email Attacks Circulating

US-CERT is aware of reports of several email attacks circulating.

The first of these attacks is related to the U.S. presidential election. The email contains a message indicating that there is a video of a candidate interview available and instructs users to follow a link to download the video. If a user clicks on this link, an executable file will be downloaded that contains the Trojan "Trojan.Srizbi."

The second attack is a phishing scam related to the U.S. Internal Revenue Service. Messages promising faster or larger refunds may request that users provide personal information or may contain links to phishing websites.

US-CERT encourages users to take the following preventative measures to mitigate the security risks:

• Install anti-virus software and keep virus signature files up-to-date.
• Do not follow unsolicited links.
  
• Block executable and unknown file types at the email gateway.
• Refer to the Recognizing and Avoiding Email Scams document for more information on avoiding email scams.
• Refer to the Avoiding Social Engineering and Phishing Attacks document for more information on social engineering attacks.