Malware authors make use of any opportunity to spread malware. Using hot topics is one of the methods to attract users to click on malware files. Recently, we received a specially crafted Microsoft Word file, detected as the Exploit-MSword.b Trojan, which launches a clean Word file to deceive users while in the background it drops a downloader.

The contents of the launched clean is an article about the earthquake in China.

And here is the source for the Word file:

We also received the following Trojan files:

“Earthquake Information.doc.scr”
“photos about earthquake of Sichuan.exe”

This is not the first time that tragic topics are used in malware infections, and users need to keep in mind that malware authors will keep using this method.