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Lycos Anti-Spam Screensaver Inspires Trojan

Posted by timothy on from the this-gets-confusing dept.

Even though it's been withdrawn, the Lycos anti-spam screensaver is not forgotten. Rollie Hawk writes "And with this, the 'What's Good for the Goose...' award goes to all those people trying to install that notorious spam-attacking Lycos screen saver but ended up with a Trojan horse instead. This trojan is spreading via email with the subject line 'Be the first to fight spam with Lycos screen saver,' tucked in an innocent-looking file called 'Lycos screensaver to fight spam.zip.' According to F-Secure, this trojan contains keylogger elements but little more has been specified. The only question I have is how long until the 'I promise to clean that trojan disguised as a DDoSing Lycos screen saver.exe' virus gets released."

6 of 167 comments (clear)

  1. tojans... by utopianfiat · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Well isn't that the basis of most trojans?
    "I promise to clean your room, do your homework, give you neck rubs, check for typos, and build a perpetual motion machine!"
    If they really wanted to, they could have tacked on a trojan that had absolutely nothing to do with the screensaver and call it that anyway.
    I'm actually surprised the trojan doesn't DDoS Lycos.

    --
    +5, Truth
  2. Well, that's what you get by millwall · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Fighting back with the same measure is not always the solution.

    Fighting violence with violence doesn't work. Why should fighting spam with spam work any better?

    1. Re:Well, that's what you get by GoodNicsTken · · Score: 4, Insightful

      "Fighting violence with violence doesn't work."

      Really? I think history has shown otherwise. Hitler comes to mind.

      Spammers know what they are doing is wrong. They are simply modivated by money. This app will cost them money and eventually make Spam unprofitable.

      The only concern I have is for innocent people that get misakenly tagged as Spammers and end up with a 10K bandwidth bill.

    2. Re:Well, that's what you get by HermanAB · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Fighting spam with email, is like fucking for virginity, but fighting violence with violence does work - you just have to kill everybody.

      --
      Oh well, what the hell...
  3. Philosophical Question... by rdc_uk · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Does it still count as news, to be told something that you KNEW was going to happen, has happened?

  4. Re:OK, for the last time children... by musikit · · Score: 4, Insightful

    2) Don't open email attachments from strangers.

    that should be modified

    2) don't open email attachments you weren't expecting from anyone