IM Worm Attack Cloaked in Virtual Card Hoax 31
An anonymous reader writes "There's a new Instant Messaging Worm on the loose that is wrapped up in more than a few interesting twists.
The people behind the infection lure users in with a message on a Russian hosted website claiming to have 'a virtual card for you' — a reference to the famous Email hoax listed on Snopes and numerous other web hoax sites. At the point of infection, the worm opens up a picture of a heart (from a site called Quatrocantos.com that tackles web scams on a daily basis) — this picture itself related to a different 'virtual card' hoax from 2002. Bearing in mind the people behind this attack are deliberately serving up an image from a 'good guy' website related to virtual card hoaxes, the question is — are they attempting to create a
real life infection out of a web-based piece of lore, making a calculated move to tie this attack into numerous Web hoaxes, possibly to confuse infected users looking for help online or simply having a little fun at the good guy's expense?"
Re:Can't it be both? (Score:4, Informative)
Slightly different. (Score:2)
The hoax was that the "virus" would wipe your hard drive and that this was already causing massive problems and there was a widespread media alert about it (what? you haven't heard yet?).
And that you should forward this warning to everyone in your addressbook.
The reality, now, is that there is a
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
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1) Either Or
2) Never
3) Madness
4) CowboyNeal?
All of it. (Score:2, Insightful)
All of the above?
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Stupid (Score:4, Insightful)
Dan East
Re:Stupid? Maybe not. (Score:2)
Newsworthy? (Score:1)
This is not "news for nerds"... (Score:2)
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Template for this story (Score:4, Insightful)
Hostile code was sent to prospective victims, in the hopes that they would either be dumb enough to run it, or dumb enough to run client software that "helpfully" runs it for them. Of course, the hostile code should be run without any sandboxing, with all the same capabilities as the victim.
Now take this template, and fill it in with irrelevant and uninteresting details. Maybe the hostile code poses as something the victim has seen before. Maybe stress how amazing it is that people still fall for it. Maybe stress how amazing it is that people still run client software that supports easy execution of hostile code. Maybe leave all this out, so that the victims' ignorance isn't mentioned and therefore the hostile code sounds all the more threatening -- i.e. IT COULD HAPPEN TO YOU, SO YOU BETTER BE SCARED (small print: if you're a fucking idiot who hasn't learned anything in the last decade or so). Now your article is ready to be submitted to Slashdot as a major story.
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"small print: if you're a fucking idiot who hasn't learned anything in the last decade or so)"
well done professor internet, what a pity that there are INDEED "fucking idiots" who will click on pretty much anything put in front of them. I've no doubt quite a few of these net noobs will stumble upon that article (or others like it) and happily avoid infection.
the thing that makes the writeup interesting,
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Or they can read the article template, and as soon as they realize "hey wait, the malware spreaders will try to trick me by making malware appear unthreatening?" then they'll happily avoid infection forever because they'll begin a policy of not executing whatever arbitrary c
Conjecture (Score:1)
My gut reaction is that this is some (extreme) degree of internet art. This article [about.com] about hoaxes being essentially viruses in and of themselves says a lot about what may have motivated this particular form of expression.
Maybe whoever made this virus was making a statement about what is "known" (What is well known not to be a virus). They may have al
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It was a fun thought while it lasted.
Old News (Score:1)
don't use eCards! (Score:1)
I read all the traffic and learned nothing (Score:1)
"malicious thingy" (Score:1)
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virus..... (Score:1)