Storm Worm Directing Users to Medical Spam Web Sites

US-CERT is aware of a variant of the Storm Worm that sends unsolicited email messages to users and attempts to evade spam filtering. When a user receives this email message, it will contain a link in the format of:

http://<IP Address>/<random directory name>

When visited, the user will be directed to a website containing medical spam information.

US-CERT urges users and administrators to take the following preventative measures to mitigate the security risks:

• Install anti-virus software, and keep its virus signature files up-to-date.
• 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.