Kampala, 24^th/April/2014; Barely two months after the controversial Anti homosexuality Bill was signed into law, the LGBTI online community in Uganda is experiencing  “Zeus malware” that is circulating through their  emails . Zeus malware is a spyware that accesses and collects details of one’s mailing and steals confidential information from a compromised computer.

Barely two months after the controversial Anti homosexuality Bill was signed into law, the LGBTI community in Uganda is being targeted by Zeus malware. Zeus malware is a spyware that accesses and collects details of one’s mailing and steals confidential information from a compromised computer

The spyware was identified by the Unwanted Witness with its partners while investigating a syndicated email link which was circulated among the LGBTI community in the month of March 2014 and demanded every receipt to click on the alleged link.

“I received this link from multiple people in my mailing list therefore it was hard for a lay person to know that it was a spyware but I never clicked on it. After few days later, my friends started questioning it before referring it to the Unwanted Witness for a lab test” a victim of the spyware said. 

The Unwanted Witness reveals that it was able to get message sources of the email and the logic behind the demand to clicking on the e-mail link was to give Zeus malware unlimited access to the receipt’s mailing list and use the same contacts to circulate the spyware.

We however suspect that the spyware was sent to a sizeable number of contacts and the sender could be having an idea of the contact list of LGBTI community in Uganda and Kenya where it started from.

 The Unwanted Witness therefore recommend preventive measures in order to avoid future attacks including; undertake a (2)step verification which is a free service provided with Gmail accounts: https://support.google.com/accounts/answer/180744?hl=en,  changing regularly user password with special characters of capital letters and digits and always be careful with emails especially those containing links (don’t click on them) and attachments (don’t download them and don’t open them)

For more Information please contact:

THE UNWANTED WITNESS – Uganda
P. O. Box 71314 Clock Tower K’la Uganda | Plot 41 Gadaffi Road
Website:  www.unwantedwitness.or.ug  
Telephone:  o: +256 414 697 635+256 414 697 635 | c: +256 752 810 079+256 752 810 079 |
Email:    o: info@unwantedwitness.or.ug |
Skype:   o:  unwantedwitness | Twitter:   o: @unwantedwitness |
Face book: o: unwanted witness Uganda