Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

U.S. State and Local Governments Receive Malware-Containing CDs Mailed from China

posted by janrinok on Tuesday July 31 2018, @01:22PM   Printer-friendly
from the old-but-tested dept.

takyon writes:

State Govts. Warned of Malware-Laden CD Sent Via Snail Mail from China

Here's a timely reminder that email isn't the only vector for phishing attacks: Several U.S. state and local government agencies have reported receiving strange letters via snail mail that include malware-laden compact discs (CDs) apparently sent from China, KrebsOnSecurity has learned.

This particular ruse, while crude and simplistic, preys on the curiosity of recipients who may be enticed into popping the CD into a computer. According to a non-public alert shared with state and local government agencies by the Multi-State Information Sharing and Analysis Center (MS-ISAC), the scam arrives in a Chinese postmarked envelope and includes a "confusingly worded typed letter with occasional Chinese characters."

Please insert in election computer.

Also at TechCrunch and Engadget.

Original Submission

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
U.S. State and Local Governments Receive Malware-Containing CDs Mailed from China | Log In/Create an Account | Top | 42 comments | Search Discussion
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 31 2018, @03:58PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 31 2018, @03:58PM (#715240)

    So I think this may be used by USA to enforce some mail-tampering acts. That's how it's done, now all of these "I-hate-china" people will happily welcome some hooknoses to put their noses into citizen's envelopes :).

    This group just seems to have no wide access to design-level in-hardware backdoors like USA has. According to some security researchers (Creator of virut botnet for example) there are intentionally planted bugs into Intel chips since Coppermine core. This is Pentium III. Of course simultaneously IT education goes nuts to make programmers (programmers... without basics of maths, electronics and computer architecture!) write obese junk instead of code as backdoored chips must be used somewhere.