Outline:
Email purporting to be from the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC), claims that you have requested a reprint of an ASIC correspondence and can click a link to retrieve a copy of the document.
Brief Analysis:
The email is not from ASIC. Clicking the link downloads a .zip file that contains a malicious JavaScript (.js) file inside. If opened, the .js file can download and install malware on your computer. If you receive one of these emails, do not click any links or open any attachments that it contains.
Subject: Request for ASIC correspondence reprintDear Customer,Thank you for your request to reprint this correspondencePlease select this link to retrieve a copy.For more information, please visit www.asic.gov.au/question.
Please do not reply to this email as it has been sent from an unattended mailbox.
Regards
Australian Securities and Investments Commission
Please consider the environment before printing this document
Information collected by ASIC may contain personal information. Please refer to our Privacy policy http://www.asic.gov.au/privacy for information about how we handle your personal information, your rights to seek access to and correct personal information, and how to complain about breaches of your privacy by ASIC.
NOTICE
This e-mail and any attachments are intended for the addressee(s) only and may be confidential. They may contain legally privileged or copyright material. You should not read, copy, use or disclose them without authorisation. If you are not the intended recipient please contact the sender as soon as possible by return e-mail and then please delete both messages. This notice should not be removed.
20160831224349
Detailed Analysis:
According to this email, which claims to be from the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC), you have requested a reprint of an ASIC correspondence. The email instructs you to click a link to retrieve a copy of the supposed ASIC correspondence.
However, the email is not from ASIC and clicking the link will not retrieve an ASIC document. ASIC has published the following warning about the attack on its website:
We’ve become aware of scam email designed to mislead our customers […]. The email is titled ‘Request for ASIC correspondence reprint’ and states that the customer has requested an invoice reprint. The email also contains a link to download the invoice.
The invoice has not been issued by ASIC. If you receive this fraudulent email, please delete it
If you click the link in the email, a .zip file will be automatically downloaded. The .zip file harbours a malicious JavaScript (.js) file. If you click the .js file, the JavaScript can download and install malware on your computer. The exact nature of the malware payload may vary. However, malicious JavaScript is often used to install ransomware. Ransomware can lock the files on your computer and then demand that you pay a fee to online criminals to receive a decryption key. JavaScript is also often used to instal malware that can steal sensitive information such as banking passwords from the infected computer
AISC is Australia’s corporate regulator and deals with a number of business related issues such as business name registration and renewal as well as company and financial services regulation. And, AISC does communicate with users via email. Thus, staff and owners of Australian businesses may be vulnerable to this malware attack.
If you receive one of these emails, do not click any links or open any attachments that it contains.
Last updated: September 1, 2016
First published: September 1, 2016
By Brett M. Christensen
About Hoax-Slayer
References
ASIC Scam Warning
Malware Threat Articles
Original Source : https://www.hoax-slayer.net/request-for-asic-correspondence-reprint-malware-email/