Managing Director Email Virus

What is "Managing Director Email Virus"?

"Managing Director Email Virus" is a scam that cyber criminals proliferate using a spam campaign. They send emails to many people hoping that a percentage of them will open the attached files. The attachment is an MS Office Word (.doc) file that uses an RTF (Rich Text Format) exploit.

In summary, this document downloads and installs HawkEye, a keystroke logger. Having this malicious program installed can cause serious problems, Therefore, do not open the attachment included in the "Managing Director Email Virus" email.

Cyber criminals proliferate an email encouraging recipients to verify a payment that can be viewed by opening the attached "Payment-Receipt.doc" file. As mentioned, this file is designed to download and install HawkEye, a malicious program designed to record keystrokes.

The program could be used to steal information typed into browsers, messaging applications, email clients, and other software. This could enable the recording of data stored in the clipboard and monitor information typed into various documents. Cyber criminals might then use these details to steal victims' logins and passwords of important accounts (for example, bank accounts).

Typically, cyber criminals attempt to steal data that can be used to generate revenue, thereby causing financial loss, privacy issues, and so on. Therefore, do not open the "Payment-Receipt.doc" file attached in the "Managing Director Email Virus" spam campaign and do not trust any other, similar emails.

Threat Summary:

Name	Managing Director spam
Threat Type	Trojan, Password-stealing virus, Banking malware, Spyware
Hoax	The email is presented as a payment receipt sent by a Managing Director of an unspecified company.
Attachment(s)	Payment-Receipt.doc (the attachment name and format might vary).
Detection Names (Payment-Receipt.doc)	Avast (Other:Malware-gen [Trj]), BitDefender (Trojan.Agent.DWSX), ESET-NOD32 (probably a variant of Win32/Exploit.CVE-2017-11882.E), Kaspersky (HEUR:Exploit.MSOffice.Generic), Full List Of Detections (VirusTotal)
Symptoms	Trojans are designed to stealthily infiltrate the victim's computer and remain silent, and thus no particular symptoms are clearly visible on an infected machine.
Payload	HawkEye trojan
Distribution methods	Infected email attachments, malicious online advertisements, social engineering, software cracks.
Damage	Stolen banking information, passwords, identity theft, victim's computer added to a botnet.
Malware Removal (Windows)	To eliminate possible malware infections, scan your computer with legitimate antivirus software. Our security researchers recommend using Combo Cleaner. ▼ Download Combo Cleaner To use full-featured product, you have to purchase a license for Combo Cleaner. 7 days free trial available. Combo Cleaner is owned and operated by Rcs Lt, the parent company of PCRisk.com read more.

There are many other spam campaigns used to trick people into opening files attached to emails. Some examples are "Xerox Color Workstation", "Upgrade Your Edition Of Microsoft Word Email Virus", and "Maersk Email Virus". Cyber criminals use these emails to spread high-risk malware such as Adwind, Pony, FormBook, AZORult, and other computer infections.

How did "Managing Director Email Virus" infect my computer?

Note, files attached to emails of this kind can infect computers only if they are opened. In this case, recipients cause download and installation of HawkEye only if they open the "Payment-Receipt.doc" Microsoft Office document. When opened, these documents usually demand permission to disable "Protected View" mode and thus enable macro commands.

If this permission is granted, a malicious attachment starts downloading and installing a keystroke logger.

The same applies to other spam campaigns - included attachments can infect systems only if they are opened. Some examples of files that cyber criminals usually attach are Microsoft Office of PDF documents, JavaScript files, executables (.exe), and archives such as ZIP, RAR.

How to avoid installation of malware?

Do not open attached files and website links that are included in emails received from unknown, suspicious addresses without carefully studying them first. If the email is irrelevant (even if presented as 'official'), do open the contents. Download software (especially freeware) from official, trustworthy websites.

Avoid downloading using third party downloaders, Peer-to-Peer networks or other similar sources. Keep installed software up-to-date, however, use implemented functions or tools provided by the official developers only. If you use Microsoft Office, use a MS Office version that is no older than 2010.

Newer versions have "Protected View" mode that prevents malicious attachments from downloading and installing malicious software. Note that software 'cracking' tools used for software activation are illegal. Additionally, these programs often cause download and installation of malware.

Finally, have reputable anti-virus or anti-spyware software installed and enabled. If you have already opened a "Managing Director Email Virus" attachment, we recommend running a scan with Combo Cleaner Antivirus for Windows to automatically eliminate infiltrated malware.

Text presented in the "Managing Director Email Virus" email message:

Dear Sir/Madam

Kindly verify the payment made to your company in the attached file.
we hope to get a quick response from you in-regards to the payment made from our company to yours.

Kindest Regards,
Mrs.Rachael (Managing Director,)

Malicious attachment distributed via "Managing Director Email Virus" spam campaign:

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Quick menu:

• What is Managing Director spam?
• Types of malicious emails.
• How to spot a malicious email?
• What to do if you fell for an email scam?

Types of malicious emails:

Phishing Emails

Most commonly, cybercriminals use deceptive emails to trick Internet users into giving away their sensitive private information, for example, login information for various online services, email accounts, or online banking information.

Such attacks are called phishing. In a phishing attack, cybercriminals usually send an email message with some popular service logo (for example, Microsoft, DHL, Amazon, Netflix), create urgency (wrong shipping address, expired password, etc.), and place a link which they hope their potential victims will click on.

After clicking the link presented in such email message, victims are redirected to a fake website that looks identical or extremely similar to the original one. Victims are then asked to enter their password, credit card details, or some other information that gets stolen by cybercriminals.

Emails with Malicious Attachments

Another popular attack vector is email spam with malicious attachments that infect users' computers with malware. Malicious attachments usually carry trojans that are capable of stealing passwords, banking information, and other sensitive information.

In such attacks, cybercriminals' main goal is to trick their potential victims into opening an infected email attachment. To achieve this goal, email messages usually talk about recently received invoices, faxes, or voice messages.

If a potential victim falls for the lure and opens the attachment, their computers get infected, and cybercriminals can collect a lot of sensitive information.

While it's a more complicated method to steal personal information (spam filters and antivirus programs usually detect such attempts), if successful, cybercriminals can get a much wider array of data and can collect information for a long period of time.

Sextortion Emails

This is a type of phishing. In this case, users receive an email claiming that a cybercriminal could access the webcam of the potential victim and has a video recording of one's masturbation.

To get rid of the video, victims are asked to pay a ransom (usually using Bitcoin or another cryptocurrency). Nevertheless, all of these claims are false - users who receive such emails should ignore and delete them.

How to spot a malicious email?

While cyber criminals try to make their lure emails look trustworthy, here are some things that you should look for when trying to spot a phishing email:

• Check the sender's ("from") email address: Hover your mouse over the "from" address and check if it's legitimate. For example, if you received an email from Microsoft, be sure to check if the email address is @microsoft.com and not something suspicious like @m1crosoft.com, @microsfot.com, @account-security-noreply.com, etc.
• Check for generic greetings: If the greeting in the email is "Dear user", "Dear @youremail.com", "Dear valued customer", this should raise suspiciousness. Most commonly, companies call you by your name. Lack of this information could signal a phishing attempt.
• Check the links in the email: Hover your mouse over the link presented in the email, if the link that appears seems suspicious, don't click it. For example, if you received an email from Microsoft and the link in the email shows that it will go to firebasestorage.googleapis.com/v0... you shouldn't trust it. It's best not to click any links in the emails but to visit the company website that sent you the email in the first place.
• Don't blindly trust email attachments: Most commonly, legitimate companies will ask you to log in to their website and to view any documents there; if you received an email with an attachment, it's a good idea to scan it with an antivirus application. Infected email attachments are a common attack vector used by cybercriminals.

To minimise the risk of opening phishing and malicious emails we recommend using Combo Cleaner Antivirus for Windows. 

Example of a spam email:

What to do if you fell for an email scam?

• If you clicked on a link in a phishing email and entered your password - be sure to change your password as soon as possible. Usually, cybercriminals collect stolen credentials and then sell them to other groups that use them for malicious purposes. If you change your password in a timely manner, there's a chance that criminals won't have enough time to do any damage.
• If you entered your credit card information - contact your bank as soon as possible and explain the situation. There's a good chance that you will need to cancel your compromised credit card and get a new one.
• If you see any signs of identity theft - you should immediately contact the Federal Trade Commission. This institution will collect information about your situation and create a personal recovery plan.
• If you opened a malicious attachment - your computer is probably infected, you should scan it with a reputable antivirus application. For this purpose, we recommend using Combo Cleaner Antivirus for Windows.
• Help other Internet users - report phishing emails to Anti-Phishing Working Group, FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center, National Fraud Information Center and U.S. Department of Justice.

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