Adware Spreads Through Myspace

Sandbagger writes "Here's an interesting problem for MySpace — groups of websites that entice MySpace users into placing videos onto their profile pages (under the guise of 'free content'), without disclosing a key piece of information that might make them think twice. When someone visits one of these profiles carrying the video, a DRM acquisition box pops up and attempts to install Zango adware. In all likelihood, the profile owners don't even know these videos are doing this to their visitors. The end result is an Adware affiliate effectively removing himself from the distribution chain and letting kids promote these videos instead, in a strange example of viral marketing gone wrong."

A real reason to block the site

[Joe The Dragon]

Now sysadmins can block this and say that it has adware / spyware and we can't let are users go there.

Technical details?

[someone300]

This "article" (i.e. blog post) doesn't even mention what browser(s) this affects or how it works. What program is at fault here.. wmplayer? Or is this little dialog box *after* pressing yes to some shady ActiveX thing.

Re:On that note...

[Pancake Bandit]

I went to my campus' computer lab to type up a paper before class (yeah, I wait until the last minute) and, of course, every computer was in use. I kid you not, 90% of the people using one of the computers was on a myspace page. To many younger internet users, it's become an important part of their social life.

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Re:just another reason...

[supremespleen]

I'm happy to be using Windows with instant functionality to any piece of freeware I find. I'm happy to be able to head to the store, grab a game, and know it will work. Those Windows users that have their computers eaten by spyware need to learn to protect themselves, simple as that.

Myspace

[bostonsoxfan]

This is darwinism. If we stop putting out patches and programs to kill adware/spyware only the strong will survive. Granted reformatting your computer isn't that difficult still it takes them off the internet. People with common sense will realize that I shouldn't download something that just pops up. Somebody should write a pamphlet about it and distribute it with new computers. Honestly you have to be a fool to not use google video for your myspace videos. They have the best servers and maybe not the greatest variety but it is a name you can trust. I will admit I have a myspace profile, but I don't put crap in it. I use it to make plans on occasion and meet up with people I have lost touch with. Myspace needs to stop allowing the video codes, or only allow it from certain servers. That would be the quickest solution. Back to darwinism download spyware once, shame on you, download spyware twice shame on me. Thats what I think about that. Its actually pretty clever. Myspace videos are pretty insiduous, so its cheap advertising. Quite a good plan.

All good marketing is viral

[Zeinfeld]

Viral marketting is just a dotbomb buzzword. The idea behind it predates the Internet, predates print in fact. This is not viral marketting, its simply a conduit for malware.

The same problem appeared on blogger a year back. I don't know if they ever got the problem under control (I learned to stop using the next blog button), but it was a real pain.

There are two problems here, first MySpace should get a clue and eradicate the infestations. Second IE should have taken steps against forced downloads back in 1998 when it was only realplayer and flash that kept asking if they could install fifty times a day. At least that was only a consequence of the pages having the active content rather than a deliberate attack to put the malware on the machine.

The reason I use Windows is precisely because you don't notice this sort of stuff if you spend your time using Firefox. I want to know the next attack while it is going on.

As an absolute rule it should never be possible for active content running in a user application to crap on the operating system internals. It should never be possible for any program to install itself in a way that is intended to prevent removal.

Windows is trying to introduce this separation but running a Windows box without access to administrator or super user privs is pretty miserable. And to an attacker super user is administrator in any case.

MySpace is a lost cause

[Zaphod2016]

When News Corp bought MySpace back in '05 [bbc.co.uk] I expected membership would begin to drop like a stone, as the "anti-establishment", Bush-hating, Indie-music loving, media-toppling population of MySpacers fled on to "the next big thing".

Sure enough, dozens of "Web 2.0" MySpace clones appeared, offering better features and the same "fight for the little guy" mentality that MySpace had become famous for. I expected those MySpacers would be off in no time. Being that I'm a tad too old (26) for those "wacky kids", I diverted my attention and awaited the sound bite that "the MySpace phenomena was over".

A year later, I'm still waiting. Meanwhile, the juaggurnaut that is MySpace continues to grow like WalMart on crack, and other News Corp properties (FX, Fox, Fox News) have jumped on the bandwagon. Call me naive, but I expected the "corporate parent" to stay well hidden from MySpace for fear of losing their main demo (Q: what are you rebelling against? A: what do you got?). Instead the opposite has happened: MySpace and fox passed the "sell out" threshold months ago, and millions more have poured onto MySpace as a result (I find myself meeting people well into their 30's and 40's with freaking MySpace accounts these days!).

So, the simple answer here in regards to the recent scam-ware MySpace epidemic is: duh. My opinion of those "60 million" antidisetablishmentarianist (take THAT grammar nazis) hit rock bottom awhile ago.

So why do I get so fired up about a website I never used in the first place? Because I give people too much credit, that's why. I was first exposed to MySpace by searching technorati and ending up in "the blogs". Believe it or not, not ALL MySpacers are completely illiterate retards. A few made excellent points regarding DRM, media and political collusions, and the evils of Fox News. But when all of this "dissent" can be bought up by "the enemy" in 5 minutes, and NO ONE EVEN CARES, it simply blows my mind.

But then I admit to myself that I still use Google, and therefore, am an ugly stinking hypocrite according to my own psuedo-morality.

In the immortal words of Homer Simpson: D'oh.

Terrible Article, Dead wrong

[grokblah]

Someone has obviously written this article as a veiled attack on MySpace. I don't really have an opinion on MySpace, but the fact is, ANYONE can post an <embed> tag to show a video on their profile.

The person (author of the article?) got a video link to a video from Zango which was DRM'd. The DRM is what makes your Windows Media Player popup that window. The file's DRM tells the Windows Media Player what URL to pull up. Anyways, all this person did was post a DRM'd video.

What a stupid article. It's all FUD to me.

MySpace are no strangers to the Spyware business

[TehBeer]

Info is below, and besides, doesn't this recent US patent, kind of fit MySpace?
http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PT O2&Sect2=HITOFF&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsearch-b ool.html&r=1&f=G&l=50&co1=AND&d=PTXT&s1=7,069,308. PN.&OS=PN/7,069,308&RS=PN/7,069,308 [uspto.gov]

It sure sounds alot like it's describing much of what myspace is, and myspace is a "deleware company" in the US and subject to US laws.

As for their kind fondness of spyware, see the citations below for more info.
Birds of a feather they say.

http://www.intermixedup.com/ [intermixedup.com]

"Intermix Management and other Insiders sold approximately $25 million of Intermix stock in full knowledge that the New York State Attorney General (NY-AG), Eliot Spitzer, would soon file a lawsuit against the company for
certain adware promotion activity. Management and Insiders sold vast quantities of stock before disclosing this critical information appropriately to the rest of the marketplace. "

http://en.wikinews.org/wiki/Bloggers_investigate_s ocial_networking_websites [wikinews.org]

"Actually, MySpace had simply shut down and become ResponseBase-- as evidenced by the "Freebies" newsletter above. ResponseBase also used a list of 8 million e-mail addresses purchased from Xdrive for their newsletters. In 2002, ResponseBase was booted from their ISP as an illicit spam organization-- with Tom Anderson himself listed as their billing contact. And later still, ResponseBase would be renamed to MySpace."

"Intermix Media itself has a tangled history. In 2004, Intermix (then operating as eUniverse) was named as a spammer organization on USENET. It purchased ResponseBase, shut down its operations, and reformed it as MySpace. On April 28, 2005, Intermix was sued by the State of New York for installing malicious spyware over the Internet. According to their press release:"

Cross Posting on Myspace..

[acomj]

I have a photo site. I notice a lot of hits from xanga and myspace for some of my photos. Kids are using them as backgrounds.. I don't really care and have the bandwidth. Someone at work noted that if I was really annoyed I could change those users background to "another" picture.....

Anytime you cross post to content on another server you run the risk of a "switch" at anytime.