Japan’s nuclear radiation crisis has become fodder for criminals seeking access to your personal online information.
Security researchers at Help Net Security have spotted spam emails claiming to have a detailed analysis on the nuclear radiation being emitted from the Fukushima-1 nuclear power plant, which was damaged by the disastrous earthquake and tsunami that hit Japan March 11.
The emails are titled, “Japan Nuclear Radiation Leakage and Vulnerability Analysis,” and were supposedly sent by the Office of Nuclear Security and Incident Response with the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
The alleged nuclear report is included in a Microsoft Excel file attached to the email.
Anyone concerned about the dangerous spread of nuclear radiation from Japan might be tempted to open the Excel file, but the file is corrupted. Opening it exposes users to a bug that allows a hacker to remotely exploit an Adobe Flash vulnerability and execute malicious code on the victim’s computer.
Help Net Security reports that Adobe has patched the Flash flaw that had been targeted and that updating to the newest version of Flash will keep users from falling victim to the scam.