Purporting to contain news on Obama’s successful campaign, the emails contain links to a website where users may be infected with a Trojan horse that can hijack information to be used in identity fraud.

Sophos reported the spam, which at the time of discovery accounted for approximately 60 per cent of all malicious spam. Subject lines such as ‘Obama preferred in world poll’ aimed to con users into downloading what was ostensibly Adobe Flash 9 in order to view a video of Obama making a speech, but was actually the Trojan horse known as Mal/Behav-027.

“Barack Obama is undoubtedly the most famous person on the planet right now”, commented Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant at Sophos.

“But email users who are eager to get the latest scoop on Obama’s monumental presidential win should be careful that they are not being tricked by conniving cybercriminals. Hackers will be quick to jump on breaking news to spread malware and steal sensitive information – web and email users should exercise extra caution and ensure that they are running security software that is fully patched and up-to-date.”

According to Sophos, the malware can take screenshots, look for passwords and submit the information to a webserver in Kiev, Ukraine.