Symantec: The sad news making the rounds these days is the death of Steve Jobs, Apple Co-founder and former CEO. His death has been a terrible loss to both Apple and Apple fans everywhere.

Spammers are capitalizing on this incident by sending malicious links related to the news of Steve Jobs’ death. Below is a screenshot of one such spam email containing a malicious link:

More malicious links found relating to death spam are:

http://[removed]com/pink.html
http://720[removed].info/habit.html
http://ebuy[removed].com/kids.html
http://[removed].com/grain.html

All these websites contain obfuscated code leading to a BlackHole exploit. Most of the domains are recently registered, however a few of the older domains look quite legitimate and seem to be hijacked.

Below are the Subject lines which have been observed in this virus spam attack:

Is Steve Jobs Really Dead?
Steve Jobs Alive!
Steve Jobs Not Dead!
Steve Jobs: Not Dead Yet!

It is unfortunate spammers are capitalizing on this loss. Internet users must continue to be vigilant when searching for pictures, videos, and news of current events. Do not open any suspicious links or attachments received in unsolicited email, and frequently update your security software which protects you from potential online viruses and scams.

R.I.P. Steve Jobs