Osama Bin Laden death related malware expected: be careful

(CNN – May 2, 2011) — Osama bin Laden, the mastermind of the worst terrorist attacks on American soil, is dead, officials said — almost 10 years after the attacks that killed about 3,000 people.

The founder and leader of al Qaeda was killed by U.S. forces Monday in a mansion in Abbottabad, north of the Pakistani capital of Islamabad, along with other family members, a senior U.S. official told CNN.

In an address to the nation Sunday night, U.S. President Barack Obama called bin Laden’s death “the most significant achievement to date in our nation’s effort to defeat al Qaeda.”

“Today, at my direction, the United States launched a targeted operation against that compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan,” Obama said. “A small team of Americans carried out the operation with extraordinary courage and capability. No Americans were harmed. They took care to avoid civilian casualties. After a firefight, they killed Osama bin Laden and took custody of his body.”

To satisfy the curiosity of many people, here the location of Osama bin Laden’s compound on Google Maps. The compound is located at 34°10′9″N 73°14′33″E, 2.5 miles (4 km) northeast of the center of Abbottabad and three-quarters of a mile (1.3 km) southwest of the Pakistan Military Academy (PMA).

Expect a flurry of e-mails, and likely black hat search engine operations trying to take advantage of the event to distribute malware. Be aware for the dangers of emails proclaiming to have information and searching for websites about his death. If you look-out for news about the death of Bin Laden and related issues, please only visit trusted news sites, also don’t click blindly on images related to the news.

Update May 2: there are reports the Bin Laden death scams are already all over Facebook.
Update May 3: malware is found on numerous sites optimized to show up on Web searches related to the event, also in scams on social networks like Facebook, Twitter & Co.