Online Crooks Target Macs With Porn Ruse

[Poiuyt]

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - In a backhanded compliment to Apple Inc. (AAPL), online criminals are apparently so impressed with its scorching sales they are sending Macintosh computers an attack typically aimed at machines running Microsoft Corp. (MSFT)'s dominant Windows operating system.
Symantec Corp. (SYMC) researchers said the Web sites serving up the new attack also deploy a Windows version.

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Online porn-hunters are the intended victim of the latest ploy, in which visitors to certain explicit Web sites are led to believe they're downloading a free video player when in fact they're installing malicious code onto their Macs.
Once the user authorizes the transaction, the fraudsters can redirect his future browsing to fraudulent Web sites and possibly to steal his information or passwords or simply send ads for other pornographic Web sites and rake in advertising dollars.

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The attack does not target a vulnerability in the Macintosh operating system.
Instead, it requires a user to approve the download, then enter his computer's administrator's password to continue, operations that raise red flags among sophisticated computer users.

more -

http://apnews.excite.com/article/20071102/D8SL7DL00.html

[Richard Steele]

1. Yup. Seen that.

Wait, did I say "me"? I meant, um...this guy I know
who downloads porn. (You wouldn't know him- he's from Canada.)

It doesn't really take a "sophisticated" user to know that
the "you need to download videoplayer!" window is utter BS.

Even a total UserLevel Doofus like me him has garnered
Apps to play every common video format, and knows that the Mac
just asks which one to open a given file with.

A new window that asks for Admin password? :rofl:

[moggie]

2. Haha, Mac users don't need porn!

Macs are porn!

[supernova]

3. There's a camera!

DIY porn!

Problem solved. :D ;-)

[supernova]

4. I had a version of this this AM!

But I had just brought up and was looking at the HuffPo web site.

It hijacked my computer and proceeded to set up an alert box to say "Mal-ware alert" let us install a fix, and redirecting my browser to a d/l and proceeding to d/l, ALL WITHOUT MY AUTHORIZATION!!

Also, it looked like a windows session, not a OSx session. And the little symbol looked like the Nortion shield. Ugh.

But I managed to stop the d/l and close out my safari session.

Ugh.