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August 06, 2008

A good time to be paranoid

In the rushes around the Bleeding Edge pond one of our favourite ways to pass the time is to relax with a good book by the terrific science fiction writer Jerry Pournelle. Jerry was kind enough today to send us a warning about a fake "Flash Player Update" which seems to be doing a particularly good job of getting unsuspecting users to install a particularly nasty piece of malware. The fake update is being spread by sites that are linked in an email titled "CNN Daily Top 10".

What's slightly depressing about this is that it isn't even newsworthy - it's just one of three malware threats appearing today. Just another day on the Internet...

So, why are so many people spending so much time creating fake web sites, virus laden emails, trojan downloaders, and other goodies? Money, of course! The days when viruses destroyed the contents of your hard drive are now long gone. Today, viruses generally do most of the following:

• Make your machine part of a spam-sending network
• Send virus-laden emails using your email account
• Log your keystrokes when visiting online banking and other sensitive sites, and send the usernames and passwords to a central location
• Install "hooks" on your PC to allow the virus writer to install new updates to their malware later

It's big business, and with the majority of Australians now online, it's a big threat. It's a good time to be paranoid.

Posted by Jeremy at August 6, 2008 09:03 AM

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Posted by: Stephen at August 9, 2008 09:34 PM

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