Now 'virus' Osama surfaces to steal your personal info

Washington, May 4: One piece of news which was picked up by all major newspapers and media channels for the last two days was the killing of al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden. With the media scrutinizing every small bit of news emerging on how the operation was carried out and people across the world lapping up each and every information eagerly, there could be another threat in the pipeline, warns the FBI.

The FBI has issued a warning against people opening unsolicited links on the internet that claims to have photos and videos of Osama"s killing that could originally be a computer virus. They have issued a word of warning to all computer users against opening spam e-mails that asks users to download software to view the photos or videos. They have also added that such applications even if it has come from known people have the ability to infect the computer and steal personal information.

The FBI in a statement said, “Such content could be a virus that could damage your computer. This malicious software or malware can embed itself in computers and spread to users' contact lists, thereby infecting the systems of associates, friends, and family members." The Internet Crime Complaint Center has also requested users from refraining to open such unsafe mails and also clicking such links within messages.

With social networking sites like twitter buzzing with tweets and comments on the killing, there are links on Facebook also doing the rounds that claims to have "exclusive footage" that will "leave you speechless". Some of the links also claim that the videos have been leaked by Wikileaks and organisations like CNN who claims to give a preview on the final moments of the slain terrorist.

The FBI has suggested that once a user clicks on the link it is automatically pasted on the walls of all his/her contacts. They have also warned such negative elements might use the FBI" name to spread harm and added, “Even a friend can unknowingly pass on multimedia that's actually malicious software." They have also recommended users to update their anti-virus software to ward off the attack of any malicious links and to specifically look out for messages that display misspellings, poor grammar and nonstandard English.

OneIndia News