Hackers to target romantic surfers

In the run up to Valentine's Day, web users visiting dating sites should watch out for specially-targetted malware, experts warn.

According to Internet Security Systems, virus writers are using online dating sites and Valentine's Day emails to spread phishing, spam and other attacks on naive internet users.

Gunter Ollman, director of X-Force at Internet Security Systems, said: “Valentine’s Day is a day marked on the criminals’ calendar for targeted attacks. Organised criminal units have in the past timed their attacks to coincide with popular celebration occasions in order to achieve maximum success in compromising the integrity of computer systems.”

The company also revealed that the number of dating site across the world increased by 17 per cent within the last twelve months, and said this can be attributed to the rise of spiteful sites.

To protect computer against these kinds of attacks ISS advices users to not open any email attachments coming from unknown sources and update security patches.