Indian cyberspace hit by Kim Jong-II malware mails: IT sleuths

NEW DELHI: Indian computer security analysts have detected and alerted internet users against " malicious spam mails" in the name of the dead North Korean leader Kim Jong-II leading to hacking and crashing of vulnerable e-mails.

The Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In), country's national agency to respond to computer security incidents, has found the malware virus streaming into the Indian cyberspace.

"It has been observed that a spam campaign in the pretext of death of North Korean leader " Kim Jong II" is making rounds for malware propagation. The malicious spam mails carry a fake name-- " brief_introduction_of_kim_jong_Ill_pdf.pdf".

"The said pdf file is exploiting vulnerabilities in Adobe reader and Acrobat, that once successfully exploited leads to remote code execution in the victim system," the CERT-In said in its latest advisory to computer and internet users in the country.

"The malware has been detected more than ten days after the death of the North Korean leader and it lures the internet user to fall into trap of reading his life and style of living. The spam generators are being detected," a senior internet investigator told PTI.

The CERT-In has asked all government and other Internet Protocol (IP) addresses to avoid clicking on the link as it may lead to loss of valuable secret data including threat to personal financial details.

The North Korean leader died of a heart attack on December 17 at the age of 69 while travelling by train outside Pyongyang, the country's capital.