Poor baby George (not to be confused with Boy George). Just a few days old and he is already responsible for the hacking of potentially millions of computers around the world – albeit indirectly, of course.
As the wee Prince of Cambridge emerged blinking into the world, cybercriminals were obviously already plotting to jump on the royal baby bandwagon and take advantage of peoples’ keen interest in the birth of our youngest member of royalty.
Spam emails were fired out around the globe encouraging recipients to click on a link to live CNN coverage of Prince George of Cambridge.
Once clicked on, users were prompted to upgrade their flash plugin in order to watch the live stream. But there was no Prince George – just a nasty Zeus Trojan. A very unpleasant virus that exists simply to steal bank details.
As Troy Gill, senior security analyst at web security firm Appriver, puts it: "These cyber criminals piggy-backed on the news of the royal birth.
"I anticipate they would have been sending tens of millions of emails, if not more than that. If you are infected by the ZeusTrojan, there is a strong possibility that your banking and any other personal information that you have entered online is going to be harvested. The ultimate goal is to steal your money."
To be honest, I would have thought everyone would have seen more than enough of the little whippersnapper on TV and in the newspapers already anyway. In any case, watch out for the dodgy emails and do not click the link!
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