Malware posing as "High School Musical" files hit P2P networks

Cybercriminals are now distributing malware on peer-to-peer (P2P) file-sharing networks disguised as music and video files related to the popular Disney movie High School Musical, Panda Security has reported.

This represents the most significant threat on P2P networks that Panda Security has seen in the last five years and is significant because cybercriminals are now taking advantage of something in headline news, Ryan Sherstobitoff, PandaLabs' chief corporate evangelist, told SCMagazineUS.com on Friday. 

“In general, there is malware in P2P, but they are starting to adapt it to current events,” Sherstobitoff said.

PandaLabs, Panda Security's malware analysis and detection laboratory, saw this specific malware on the P2P networks eMule and eDonkey, but malware is generally being widely distributed on all P2P networks, Sherstobitoff said.

“We are seeing an increasing amount of files downloaded from P2P networks containing malware," said Luis Corrons, technical director of PandaLabs, in a news release. "Even random searches could return results with malicious files, so it would seem that there are servers created exclusively for distributing malware across these networks."

The attack is most likely financially driven and cybercriminals are trying to infect users to obtain personal information, Sherstobitoff said.