The EMEA Fortinet Technologies Threat response team has noted the distribution of malicious PDF files as attachments to emails about swine flu.  The social engineering trick is not only used in pure executable Trojan distribution campaigns, but also in Search Engine Optimization attacks.

Cybercriminals have been taking advantage of worldwide news events to seed their Trojans since 2005.  “We must get used to the fact that all significant news events, including natural or health catastrophes, will spawn their lot of malware and profiteers. Fortunately, good practice (up-to-date antivirus definitions and patched software) makes you immune to a great part of those. For instance, the swine flu malicious PDF mentioned above will be absolutely innocuous provided your PDF-reading software is up-to-date,” said Guillaume Lovet, senior manager, Threat Response Team – EMEA Fortinet Technologies.