YouTube hit by porn and malware scams
By Davey Winder in Editorial
Posted in Security, Google, Internet on
The week started off OK for YouTube, with the news that it was now seeing a rather impressive 20 hours worth of video clips being uploaded to the site every minute of every day. It did not take long for the week to go pear-shaped, however. First with the 4Chan Porn Bombing episode which saw hundreds of video clips purporting to be family friendly kid’s clips actually containing hardcore pornography content. The sickos behind this stunt, who have been boasting of their exploits in various online forums, seem to think it amusing to expose kids to sexually explicit material and have justified the action by claiming it was done to expose how easy uploading porn to YouTube is. I have said it elsewhere, and I will say it here. Dumbass. Sick, twisted and moronic dumbass in fact.
Just as the powers that be at Google must have thought the week could get no worse, and with a weekend coming up as well, PandaLabs has today revealed that it has discovered nearly 5000 videos on YouTube which contain comments that link to malicious web pages. OK, so it isn’t quite in the same league as the dumbass YouTube Porn revelation, but I feel sure that Google could have done without it, nonetheless. Let’s face it, using comments on a web 2.0 site to try and herd users towards malware sites is nothing new. Digg and Facebook have seen it, Twitter has seen it, and I feel pretty sure that YouTube has seen it in the past as well. So what is different this time? Well, that number for one thing. PandaLabs tells me it has detected 4900 videos in all, so far, with malicious links in the comment fields. Using the usual manipulation logic of the malware merchant, these comments suggest the link will take the user to a site hosting porn videos, and no I do not mean YouTube itself despite that earlier news story. The sting is the old ‘download a file to view the video’ one, in this case, or in 4900 cases should I say, everyone gets a copy of a fake antivirus solution called PrivacyCenter which does a fake scan and then offers a premium version at cost to clean up the infected system. A typical scareware scam in other words. What does not seem typical, at least for a YouTube scam, is the execution of the commenting.
“The technique of using malicious comments on YouTube is not new in itself. What is alarming however, is the quantity of links we have detected pointing to the same Web page. This suggests that cyber-criminals are using automated tools to publish these comments” Luis Corrons, Technical Director of PandaLabs says.
Rated: 100% (1 votes)
Loading ...Pingback by - June 9, 2009 on 11:37 am
[…] risks are: access to pornography, exposure to paedophiles, online bullying, revealing personal information and learning how to swear […]
Comment by - October 27, 2009 on 10:23 am
Cool post.. Its true that YouTube is hit by porn and malware scams.. Youtube is only the site where i see any type of videos..
Trackback by - April 3, 2011 on 11:21 pm
Century Bike…
[…]As amateur cyclists it can be all[…]…
Trackback by - July 10, 2011 on 10:35 am
Electric Fence for Dogs…
[…]After research a couple of of the blog posts on your website now[…]…
Trackback by - July 28, 2011 on 4:35 pm
Read was interesting, stay in touch……
[…]please visit the sites we follow, including this one, as it represents our picks from the web[…]……
Trackback by - November 3, 2011 on 10:08 pm
This is great view…
Extremely excellentpostImerelystumbled on your ownblogand alsowished to mentionthat willI have truly liked surfing close toyourblogarticlesIn any case I�llend up being subscribingon your own rss supplyalong withI hopeanyone composeagain quickly!…
Trackback by - November 24, 2011 on 8:02 am
Acnezine…
Acnezine most beneficial acne…
Trackback by - November 26, 2011 on 7:27 am
Wartrol…
wartrol genital warts genital warts…
Trackback by - December 1, 2011 on 1:15 am
Buy Wartrol…
wartrol natural remedies for warts…
Trackback by - December 6, 2011 on 4:15 am
car town cheats download…
car town engine cheat…
Trackback by - December 7, 2011 on 4:59 pm
car town guide…
car town hack cheat engine…
Trackback by - December 13, 2011 on 8:04 am
Trackback Link…
[…]Here are some of the sites we recommend for our visitors[…]…
Trackback by - December 16, 2011 on 5:39 am
Sites We Like…
[…]just below, are some totally unrelated sites to ours, however, they are definitely worth checking out[…]…
Trackback by - December 18, 2011 on 9:39 am
Extra Reading…
[…]we like to honor other sites on the web, even if they aren’t related to us, by linking to them. Below are some sites worth checking out[…]…
Trackback by - December 27, 2011 on 7:53 pm
Reviewer…
Hello!, I’ve gone ahead and bookmarked your page on Reddit so my friends can see it too. I simply used your blog title as the entry in my bookmark, as I figured if it is good enough for you to title your blog post that, then you probably would like t…
Trackback by - January 3, 2012 on 11:18 am
My opinion is ……
I am only writing to let you be aware of what a wonderful encounter my child obtained going through your webblog. She even learned a wide variety of issues, which included how it is like to have an awesome helping mood to make certain people effortless…
Trackback by - February 9, 2012 on 4:03 am
greenpeace internship usa…
[…]ready quick although ago, “Mom athlonsports are exceeded shin as well as knee players, I […]…
Trackback by - February 9, 2012 on 8:01 am
will smith dead dec 2011…
[…]a central aspect of passe-temps stroke, physiotherapy, osteotherapy, pressure leadership and relaxation therapy.[…]…
Trackback by - February 28, 2012 on 10:11 pm
Totally Free Dating, Meet Local Singles….
Are You Lonely? Did You Spend Valentines day Alone?…
Trackback by - April 22, 2012 on 1:23 am
Online Article……
[…]The information mentioned in the article are some of the best available […]……
Make a comment
Tag cloud
Archives
- June 2010
- May 2010
- April 2010
- March 2010
- February 2010
- January 2010
- December 2009
- November 2009
- October 2009
- September 2009
- August 2009
- July 2009
- June 2009
- May 2009
- April 2009
- March 2009
- February 2009
- January 2009
- December 2008
- November 2008
- October 2008
- September 2008
- August 2008
- July 2008
- June 2008
- May 2008
- April 2008
- March 2008
- February 2008
- January 2008
- December 2007
- November 2007
- October 2007
- September 2007
- August 2007
- July 2007
- June 2007
- May 2007
- April 2007
- March 2007
- February 2007
- January 2007
- December 2006
- November 2006
- October 2006
- September 2006
- August 2006
Most commented posts
- 80 percent of viruses love Windows 7
165 comments
- Has Microsoft gone mental?
- Has the US Army declared war on Windows 7?
- Cuil frozen out: market share drops to next to nothing
- Xbox 360 FAIL
- The 24GB RAM Desktop is born
- Use old version of Windows instead of Linux, says teacher
- Microsoft reveals time-based licensing model
- How Marblecake Hacked Time
- Nexus Two - The Next Generation
Highest Rated Blog Posts
- Why ecommerce fails (100%)
- Google Chrome stands alone at PWN2OWN (100%)
- Betting on Hubdub technology (100%)
- Has Google gone insane as GMail goes back to beta? (100%)
- Chinese whispers as government implicated in UK hack attacks (100%)
- Crimeware toolkit targets 10,000 trusted sites (100%)
- Black Hat risk to migrating VMs (100%)
- Tough on cyber crime, tough on the causes of cyber crime (100%)
- Firefox 3, Beta 4, Enhancements 900, Tested 5 (100%)
- Has the US Army declared war on Windows 7? (100%)
