Bin Laden death brings malware explosion

[seabeyond]

With the biggest news in a decade dominating the Internet, it didn't take long for rogue viruses, Trojans and other malware to mess with computers given the chance.

Web searches and links to a variety of stories — real and fake — about the death of Osama bin Laden are sprouting with all kinds of malicious software as cybercriminals look for a big payday tied to the appetite for news about the Al-Qaida leader's demise.

"The bad guys were quite fast and started to poison searches results in Google Images," said Favio Assolini, a Kaspersky Labs expert on the security software company's blog. "Some of the search results are now leading users to malicious pages."

As an example, Assolini shared a Google search page with the words "osama bin laden body" typed in the search box. "When clicking an image in the results page, the user will be redirected to one of the malicious domains," antivirus.cz.cc/fast-scan/ and pe-antivirus.cz.cc/fast-scan/, he said. Both are "offering" a copy of rogueware called "Best Antivirus 2011." And both can bring your computer down.

http://technolog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/05/02/6570503-bin-laden-death-brings-malware-explosion

[hobbit709]

1. Just like any other hot news item scam to trap the unwary and unprotected.

[seabeyond]

2. i must be really protected cause i dont get the whole thing

hubby tells me to be wary, dont click on pictures of osama, and it is like why not.... i wanna. lol. how do i know when i can click and not. sigh. so hard.

i never pay attention and dont get stuff so i must have good protection. i just dont get the whole thing

[hobbit709]

3. When you move your mouse over a link does the link address show on the bottomof the screen.

[seabeyond]

4. why, yes it does. this is so exciting. so what? nt

[hobbit709]

5. If the address shown doesn't resemble the address in the search result, DON"T click on it.

As the article you linked to says.

[seabeyond]

7. i read the article and didnt read that, lol. the thing, if you are so anti tech

does not sink in at all. at all.

k. appreciate it.

[TheMadMonk]

Read it. See where it points. Use the thing in your head for something...

...other than keeping your ears apart.

[Wednesdays]

14. Now, that was a bit cheeky, don'tcha think?

:eyes:

[TheMadMonk]

16. When it comes to computers no. Try reading a few "stupid computer user"...

...stories for an indication of the heroic restraint in my language. (No intended reflection on SB.)

The world is unfortunately full of people who still think of computers as "machines that think", and they to all outward appearances, absolutely unshakeably hold the attitude that the computer is supposed to do their thinking for them and they'll be damned before they waste any of their precious thinking on it.

Actual quote from such a user: "Computers are smart. They should do what I want them to do, not what I tell them."

Which is in fact, now that I think about it, why I openly question the presence of thought when faced with evidence of its absence in the mess before me. The response gives me a pretty good idea of whether it's worth the effort of staying to educate, or fixing it and running, with fervent hopes that someone else will have the joy of "helping" next time around.

[DainBramaged]

6. Alt + F4 stops it dead if you DON'T click the screen or hit any other key

[seabeyond]

8. ok. so i wrote it on a postit in front of me. i was going to ask how you get out of it quickly

in the past i have just turned off puter.

thanks. i will try this if it happens again

[DainBramaged]

9. Google should do more to police it's images for malware

how hard is it for them to delete from search these images? They can fucking track us all over the world?

[seabeyond]

10. so, i was talking to hubby and he says he only goes into familiar sites and not foreign

sites. are you that particular in the sites you go into when you google. is everyone and i just never knew or paid attention?

[DainBramaged]

11. I am extremely careful, it be ma job

I use a shitload of tools to protect myself and the computers at my work from unnecessary problems. I am SURE tomorrow I will be fixing a system from this anti-virus 2011 because one of the morans I work with couldn't resist searching for a picture of a dead Assama....

[seabeyond]

12. lol lol. my husband is the same. but then he fixes computers too.

maybe cause he has us so secure and i really do/know nothing about my computer, he does it all, i have been lucky

i guess i am going to have to learn to look at links.

thanks dainbramaged

[Name removed]

13. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Wednesdays]

15. And it serves people who stumble upon it right, too?

:shrug: