Security Links: 'Fake Viruses', Scareware, Botnets, and Malware
- Dr. Roy Schestowitz
- 2009-09-16 12:55:07 UTC
- Modified: 2009-09-16 12:55:07 UTC
Summary: News about things that do not affect Free software users
●
NYTimes.com Users Hit by Malicious Ad
●
Fake virus infection Web pages are everywhere
Everyone has seen a fake virus infection Web page from time to time. They pop up on your screen looking like a perfectly normal Windows page except they tell you that your PC is infected by a virus and you need to click here to either fix the problem or download a program that will clean out the bug for you. The only problem is it's a lie. It's actually an attack designed to get you to download malware.
Usually these fake Windows pages-they're actually Web pages-pop up when you're visiting a dodgy Web site. But, even the New York Times isn't immune to attacks like this. Over this last weekend, September 12-13, I was startled to see an apparent Windows page show up that read, "Warning!!! Your system requires immediate anti-viruses scan. Personal Antivirus can perform fast and free virus malicious software scan of your computer."
[...]
That's good advice. When you're on a Windows PC, you shouldn't click on any part of the fake message. No, not even cancel. Any click might start a malware download.
●
Scareware scumbags exploit 9/11
Fraudsters have set up websites supposedly containing info about 9/11 but actually geared towards running fake anti-virus (scareware) scams.
●
Trial set for 'botnet for hire' duo
A federal judge has cleared the way for the trial of two men accused of waging a cyber attack on a webhosting company so they could demonstrate the effectiveness of their botnet to potential customers.
●
Malware lingers months on infected PCs
Previous estimates suggested that a compromised machine remains infected for approximately six weeks. Based on an analysis of around 100 million compromised IPs, Trend Micro concludes that many infected IPs are infected (or repeatedly infected) for more than two years, with a median infection length of 300 days. Four in five compromised machines are infected for more than a month.
Recent Techrights' Posts
- Slopwatch: Plagiarism and "Linux" Articles by Bots
- Sites that do this won't survive; many of them rely on slop services (suppliers) that will cease to exist after the bubble bursts
- New XBox Leaks Probably Serve to Confirm XBox's Collapse (Many More Layoffs)
- It's very much consistent with what many other sites have reported lately
-
- Staying Happy in Times of Crackdowns on Civil Society
- Optimism in this sort of "new reality" or "new normal" seems like something for the irrational person
- "Nobel" Exploited Posthumously for "AI" Hype, Now They Do the Same With "Quantum"
- ere have been many jokes about "Nobel" for peace (often granted to pro-war people) and a fake one for "Economics" (establishment propaganda)
- Distinguished Lecture by Richard Stallman This Coming Monday in Rome
- After "Free software, Crucial for Freedom in a Digital World"
- Links 10/10/2025: Putin Admits Russia Downed Azerbaijan Airlines Jet, More New Heat Records
- Links for the day
- Noteworthy Claim That IBM is Firing a Lot of Lawyers This Week (RAs in the Legal Department)
- A lot of what they do is patent 'trolling' or lawyering up against their own staff (e.g. HR disputes)
- Links 10/10/2025: US Judge Bars Attacks by ICE On Journalists and Protesters; “We Took The Freedom of Speech Away” Says the President
- Links for the day
- Slopwatch: Serial Sloppers, Google News Gifting Slopfarms, and Fake News/Plagiarism About "Linux"
- Google itself is a slop pusher these days
- Qualcomm, the New Owner of Arduino, Blasted for Its Software Patents Tax on 'Smartphones'
- A lot of Qualcomm's patents are on software. We wrote about this in prior years.
- XBox Layoffs Rumours, Downtime, and Criticism From XBox Co-Founder
- "everyone is ditching the xbox."
- Links 10/10/2025: Honoring The Legacy Of Robert Murray-Smith, Many Articles on the Hey Hi (AI) Bubble
- Links for the day
- Gemini Links 09/10/2025: October Gothic and Reading Middle Earth Role Playing; C and Ada
- Links for the day
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Thursday, October 09, 2025
- IRC logs for Thursday, October 09, 2025
- Links 09/10/2025: Farewell to Jane Goodall, California Bans Algorithmic Price-Fixing
- Links for the day
- Gemini Links 09/10/2025: Lost Wages and a Saga Of Continuing To Use Palm PDAs
- Links for the day
- Richard Stallman's Talk in Helsinki is Done. Tomorrow Göteborg.
- There are scarce details in Finnish about Dr. Stallman's talk
- The Slop Song
- The train wreck marches on
- LLM Slop/Advanced Plagiarism Flooding the Zone With Capital That Does Not Exist
- Many publishers out there still participate in this bubble instead of calling it what it is
- Links 09/10/2025: Sacked Microsoft Workers Make "Sackbird", IBM Taps CockroachDB for PostgreSQL
- Links for the day
- "Happy Hacking Day" Richard Stallman Talk This Afternoon (From 14:00 to 16:00) at Haaga-Helia University in Pasila
- Richard Stallman in Helsinki, Finland
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, October 08, 2025
- IRC logs for Wednesday, October 08, 2025
- Links 09/10/2025: Impact of Microsoft Layoffs, More Data Breaches
- Links for the day
- Gemini Links 09/10/2025: Autumn Blues and C IRC Bot
- Links for the day
- Slopwatch Appreciated by Real Authors of GNU/Linux Articles
- We do try to keep on top of those things
- Upgraded R.R.R.R.R.R. Today
- The Web of 2025 is full of garbage, not limited to slopfarms
- Freedom From Proprietary Prisons
- Forking always an option
- IBM's Watson Died in 1956, Now Watson Dies Again
- IBM is becoming just a reseller of GAFAM and other stuff
- Slopwatch: LinuxSecurity, UbuntuPIT, and Google News
- We've also just noticed more slop from UbuntuPIT
- Microsoft Says That Constant Mass Layoffs Are Success, the Media Isn't Buying This Microsoft Narrative Anymore
- If people in the media feel an obligation to repeat whatever lies Microsoft tells, what point will there be to the media?
- Links 08/10/2025: "Mali Puts Free Speech on Trial" And Apple Enforces Dictatorship
- Links for the day
- Links 08/10/2025: ‘Death to Spotify’ and Law to Ban Loud Commercials on Streaming (Dis)Services
- Links for the day
- Links 08/10/2025: Real Innovation and Nina.chat is Dead
- Links for the day
- Links 08/10/2025: Y2K38 Bug is a Vulnerability, Chat Control in Europe a Threat
- Links for the day
- Microsoft Windows is No Longer an Operating System, It's Surveillance Project
- Why is this even legal to preload on PCs outside the US?
- How and Why Once-Legitimate Sites Turn Into Slopfarms
- Many sites will go offline and many social control networks will shut down once they realise or even openly admit they spend money and time gardening a bunch of bots and slop
- UbuntuPIT Became a Slopfarm and Gnoppix Tarnishes Its Own Brand With Slop
- It fits all the characteristics of mildly-edited (if at all) slop
- Slopwatch: Linux Journal and Other Slopfarms
- GAFAM needs to go the way of the dodo
- Gemini Links 08/10/2025: "Seek Seek Revolution" and Gradient Backgrounds
- Links for the day
- Qualcomm Arduino Takes Aim at Raspberry Pi
- Qualcomm is a Microsoft partner
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, October 07, 2025
- IRC logs for Tuesday, October 07, 2025
- Stagnation of the Economy and What Free Software Can (or Could) Do For It
- If your economic model is based on a pyramid of lies, it won't last very long
- Social Control Media is Sinking
- it would rightly seem like the era of centralised "social" sites (they're not social, they're about controlling the users) is ending, not overnight but gradually