In a non-surprising move, malware writers are trying to exploit the publicity around the hanging of Saddam Hussein to their own advantage.

So far we've seen three different examples of malware using Saddam-related themes.

According to F-Secure, two of the variants disguise their nefarious activity by opening up a youtube.com search for "enforcado" which means "execution" in Portuguese. Once executed, these programs download and install a trojan called the "Banker" trojan that is used to steal financial information such as your login, username, password, PIN, etc. when you access financial websites.

This follows right on the heels of the story about Dave DeSmidt who lost $179,000 from his 401k account at J.P. Morgan Chase after hackers gained access to his account while he was in China, and promptly emptied it. (h/t The Consumerist) Read the article though ... there is a happy ending.