Latest social engineering trick targets astronomers

Amateur astronomers are being warned of a new malware attack claiming to offer images of last night's lunar eclipse.

Web monitoring firm Websense said that malware writers are using the eclipse in a social engineering attack and have spammed out emails offering 'footage' of the event.

"Websense Security Labs has discovered a run of spam emails that attempt to dupe users into downloading and installing a video of the solar eclipse," said the company.
Sample subject lines include:

'Lunar Eclipse Video, Your guide to the total lunar eclipse'
'Shocking video with Total moon eclipse'
'Total Moon Eclipse Video on NASA TV'
'Moon Eclipse is visible today'

Users are warned that the download is actually a Trojan program that could allow a hacker full administrative control of the user's PC.

Although the skies over the UK were too cloudy for most people to view the eclipse millions watched it worldwide.

The eclipse track ran from eastern Brazil, across the Atlantic to north Africa, then on to the Middle East, Central Asia, west China and Mongolia.

The next lunar eclipse will not be visible until December 2010.