Spammers exploit Iran nuclear crisis

As Iran is threatening to resume uranium-converting operations at a nuclear facility in Isfahan, spammers are taking advantage of the situation with another bogus junk email campaign.

The emails, which link to Trojan spreading websites, are purporting to contain news stories of the nuclear stand-off between the EU and Iran, according to antivirus firm Sophos.

The campaign is the latest bid to fool internet users into downloading malware.

In an press statement, Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant at Sophos, said: "Hackers are spamming out messages claiming to be breaking news stories, in the hope that unwary internet surfers will visit the malicious websites for further information. We saw the same gang of hackers use a near-identical trick about the tragic story of US marine deaths in Iraq last week."

If clicked on, the link in the emails downloads password-stealing Trojan horse programs that affect Windows machines.

Cluley added: "Simply reading the spam email doesn't infect you. But if you click on the link and visit the infected website then you are putting the safety of your data and computer at risk."

Subject lines used in the spam campaign include: "Iran snubs pleas, resumes uranium shift"; "Iran to restart U production"; and "Where doees Iran get its uranium ores?"

The EU and US have threatened to impose sanctions on Iran if it resumes work in nuclear plants.