Where there’s a catastrophe there is, unfortunately, someone look to cash in on it. Such is the case with a new virus being spread via email.

These emails claim to be from the World Health Organization, and the email subject line is “information and prevention.” But, really, this is just a virus that’s being spread on a small scale for now, but will likely spread quickly over the next few months as ebola scares grow.

What the Email Looks Like

The emails that contain the virus look like they are coming from the World Health Organization, and they contain an attachment. If you click on that attachment, your computer will be infected with a really bad virus. In this case, the virus works like most do - once you have opened the attachment, hackers can access your computer remotely. Once a computer has been accessed remotely, hackers can then grab all kinds of information like passwords and other details from stored data.

It should be noted that any kind of news event just provides hackers with email spam and virus fuel. Since hackers know that most people will open up emails that appear to be about a particularly scary current event or other piece of interest, these are the perfect emails to sink viruses into. This is the case with the ebola emails, though the campaign doesn’t seem to be too far spread at the time being.

Government Warnings

In addition to this notification, the U.S. Government’s Department of Homeland Security's Computer Emergency Readiness Team has issued a warning telling people not to open ebola emails. As ebola outbreaks continue to spread, though, you can expect to see a lot more of these email phishing and other scams pop up. The best way to avoid becoming a victim in this case is to simply not open anything coming from anyone you do not know - and you can rest assured that organizations like WHO are not sending out individual emails about ebola to everyone on the planet.

By now, people should be aware enough to know not to open any attachments that are unsolicited. But, a few people are still opening these types of emails. Hackers usually target older people that do not know any better, and people that are simply unaware of what’s happening. The best way to help spread the news about this particular virus is to share an article like this one that provides people with information - the more you share, the more people are aware.

Quick Spreading

Thus far, there has only been a handful of reports related to this particular email virus, though this is likely to spread quickly as the actual ebola virus increases, and the virus becomes more and more on the top of people’s minds. When it comes to your email, though, you should always be on the lookout for emails with attachments that are based on current news events - more often than not, those emails are viruses waiting to be downloaded.