Malware distributors are using a fabricated sex scandal to push their wares,
according to security researchers.
Symantec
has found numerous fake blogs which refer to a 'home sex movie' made by Hong
Kong film stars
Edison
Chen and
Cecilia
Cheung. The blogs are then advertised by spammed comments on forums.
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Users are told that they will need to download a special ActiveX plug-in to
view the video which does not, of course, exist. Instead of a browser plug-in,
users receive a version of the
Zlob
Trojan.
The scheme is a new twist on the 'fake codec' scam, a social engineering
attack in which users are told that they need to download new plug-ins and video
translators in order to watch movie files.
The codecs turn out to be Trojan applications which install malware on the
user's system.
Symantec researcher Silas Barnes said in a
company
blog that the best way to protect against the attack is through education.
The use of fake ActiveX video objects and codecs is certainly not a new phenomenon
Silas Barnes Symantec researcher
"The use of fake ActiveX video objects and codecs is certainly not a new
phenomenon, and has been used to target viewers of adult material," he wrote.
"Ensuring that you and your users are aware of the threats, and the way they
operate, makes it more difficult for this kind of malicious activity to bear
fruit for its creator."
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