YouTube used to spread virus
No, you won’t get viruses simply by viewing videos via youtube’s website, but rather the person who uploaded the video could use the video page to trick you into going to another website and infecting yourself. news.com reported on 2nd July 2007 that a Grand Theft Auto Hood Life mod video is being used to do this.
Chris Boyd (Director of Malware Research at FaceTime Security Labs) said:
- the graphics in the mod are of low quality: the images used in the video are at least 20 years old and definitely not in the same leagues as graphics in the game, but amazingly more than 50 people have downloaded it.
- once the file is downloaded and installed, your PC will hang (freeze). Upon rebooting the PC, the virus will be activated.
Apparently, this is the 2nd time youtube has been used to distribute malware. Last month, the Zlob adware trojan horse was distributed via fake video links. It appears as porn adware, then installs to try find and steal data. It was reported that the only way to deal with the risk to wait for YouTube’s tech support to delete the links, which could take hours, and hours means plenty of time for damage to be done.
Written by pinolobu on July 4th, 2007 with
no comments.
Read more articles on news.
- [+] Digg: Feature this article
- [+] Del.icio.us: Bookmark this article
- [+] Furl: Bookmark this article