Hackers Lure PC Victims With Fake YouTube Videos8-27-07 6:41 PM EDT
NEW YORK -(Dow Jones)- Vanity and lust are proving to be deadly sins for some Internet users.
A hacker group known as "Storm Botnet" over the weekend began flooding the Internet with emails, inviting Web users to watch a salacious video starring them on YouTube, the video-sharing site owned by Google Inc. (GOOG). One such email is headlined "OMG, what are you thinking," and reads: "this i [sic] not good. If this video gets to her husband your both dead. see for yourself..." It then provides a link to a purported video.
However, links in the emails actually point to attacker-operated sites that try to download several malicious programs onto vulnerable personal computers, according to Roger Thompson, chief technical officer at Exploit Prevention Labs, a New Kingstown, Pa., security company.
"Everybody thinks a YouTube video is perfectly safe, and in reality it is," Thompson said. "You're not actually getting to YouTube."
Once infected, victim PCs become spam machines, "zombies" that Storm Botnet can use to attack others on the Internet with floods of traffic, and Web servers that further distribute the group's malicious programs to other PCs. The attackers also plant a rootkit in victim PCs that tries to hide the malicious programs so antivirus software can't remove them. Exploit Prevention Labs' LinkScanner product protects against the threat, and the company provides free online checks of suspect links at http://linkscanner.explabs.com/linkscanner/ default.asp.
The attack exploits more than a half dozen flaws in software used by computers with Microsoft Corp.'s (MSFT) Windows operating system, including Internet Explorer, Quicktime and WinZip. Computers that are up-to-date with all security patches are safe, unless they respond to a prompt built into the attack that cleverly invites them to click on another link if they are unable to view the video.
Storm Botnet, which commands an apparently massive network of home PCs infected with its programs, has also been responsible for a flood of malicious emails recently that have offered fake electronic greeting cards.
-By Riva Richmond, Dow Jones Newswires; 201-938-5670; riva.richmond@ dowjones.com (END) Dow Jones Newswires
08-27-071841ET
Copyright (c) 2007 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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Ha ha ha, that will teach the cheating *****

 

Got one of those emails today.

 

I received on at work today.
Never click links in emails.

You can "View Source" of the emails and actualy see where the link will take you. It is almost never the same site as the promised site.
Scott

 

she said I would see any more of them videos????
dam her

 

Actually had two of those emails in my Bulk Mailbox....I never open them unless I know who they are from

Those people must be very bored with life in general

 

People that mess with others property need a little 'rope in the tree time' Creating viruses is no different.

 

Those "you have received an Ecard" or greeting card from a classmate are real popular viruses right now too, I dont click any links if I dont know who sent it to me....