A harmful Trojan horse is invading inboxes via a holiday greeting that claims to contain photographs of women in sexy swimwear.
"Hello my dear!!! How are you?" reads an email that purportedly comes from a woman named Yoko. "As I promised here's my bikini photos. I hope you will be love it! This is my humble gift for Christmas! See you later :)," Instead of Yoko though, the sender signs off with a different name. "Your love, Ciara."
Attached, victims will find a .zip file that contains what appears to be a bikini screen saver labeled as Bikini.scr, which "contains a variety of encrypted strings," Sophos' Naked Security blog reported.
Sophos Labs also came across an Italian-language version of the same scam. [ Trojans: What They Are and How to Avoid Them ]
Emails from strangers should always be treated with skepticism. Never download an attachment from someone you don't know.
And remember, computers can become infected via trusted services. You can almost never be 100 percent certain who you're dealing with online.