Cyberspies exploit Microsoft Office using Targeted Attacks
These special targeted attacks are highly focused and very limited. Still, everyone in sensitive organizational settings (e.g., military, government, etc) should be cautious and look beyond traditional email approaches to safely exchange sensitive information. All users should avoid opening any untrusted attachments or URLs.
Cyberspies exploit Microsoft Office using Targeted Attacks
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/computersecurity/2007-04-22-cyberspies-microsoft-office_N.htm
http://isc.sans.org/diary.html?storyid=2688
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Cyberspies have a new secret weapon: tainted Microsoft Office files. A rising number of cyberattacks are taking aim at specific individuals at critical government agencies and corporations — enticing them to unwittingly open a corrupted Word, Excel or PowerPoint file sent as an e-mail attachment.
Clicking on the file relinquishes control of the PC without the user's knowledge. The attacker then uses the compromised PC as a base from which to roam the organization's internal network. Federal agencies and defense and nuclear contractors are under assault. Security firm Message Labs says it has been intercepting a series of attacks from PCs in Taiwan and China since November.
The Office file attacks are "very targeted and very limited," says Mark Miller, Microsoft's director of security response, who called on workers "to absolutely extend extreme caution" when opening Office files in e-mail. |