Email Hoax Making the Rounds in Finland

Two deceptive emails written in Finnish were reported to be circulating on Wednesday in Finland. They include a link that could install a rogue programme used in banking scams. One of the messages claims a nuclear explosion has occurred in the town of Mikkeli. The other purports to be from a student named Tatjana who is looking for a relationship. According to F-Secure expert Erkki Mustonen, similar messages written in German were being circulated in Switzerland on Wednesday. Both F-Secure and the Finnish Communications Regulatory Authority said the messages had reached a considerable number of email addresses. However, they said it's impossible to estimate how many people have been affected by the spam email. Mustonen added that the messages are unique because they are written in rather good Finnish. The rogue programme is activated if the recipient downloads the programme after clicking on the link. Simply opening the link does not appear to cause any harm, said Ari Husa, an expert at CERT-FI, the Finnish national Computer Emergency Response Team. Experts are now analysing the rogue programme. Mustonen said that the programme is type of Zbot Trojan used to steal banking information. YLE