Social Networks Attract Malware Authors

Looks like the Zanga attack on MySpace last summer was a bellwether. Tiny Tuba writes, "Parents and social network users have one more thing to worry about. According to a PC World article, increasingly bad guys are booby-trapping sites like My Space and Webshots with malware in the form of links, ads, bogus invitations to view pictures, and more." From the article: "Like pickpockets at a festival, money-minded malware authors are drawn by the huge crowds visiting social networking sites."

Comments

Well gosh.

[AltGrendel]

How suprising

...bad guys are booby-trapping sites like My Space and Webshots with malware in the form of links, ads, bogus invitations to view pictures, and more.

Come on, we all knew it was a matter of time.

a learning experience

[Phantom of the Opera]

This is going to make the general population more aware of 'internet sanitation'. Its going to enter the public consciousness that there are some nasty things out there. People probably won't learn that using IE is like picking up a dirty syringe that washed up on the beach, but they may be a little more careful about what they click.

Expect snakeoil anti-malware companies to flourish as well.

Re:a learning experience

[joe 155]

I disagree with your first point, but agree fully about people selling crap anti-malware (why buy it? linux is free).

If all the other 0day attacks that have existed and the old classics which still rumble on aren't enought to make people care nothing will, not even myspace. Someone who lives in my building has a worm which could easily be stopped if they updated XP (It keeps trying to probe my linux box and registers as "microsoft-ds" on port 445, if you're wondering), but some people will just never care.

Still, I suppose there might be some money to be made from selling really basic anti-malware programs which might do nothing - but because they're closed source it'd be illegal to find out ; )

Re:a learning experience

[Cap'nPedro]

Are you sure they'll even know where the malware came from/how they were infected?

Even if they're told, will they believe it?

Re:a learning experience

[pembo13]

The problem with what you saying is that people (as a whole) are quite comfortable with not knowing what nasties lay "out there". There have always been these things, in different forms. The will seemly cope by ignoring.

Add the Duh! tag now

[zappepcs]

Is it just me, or is everyone else having trouble understanding why this is news.

Ants are invading picnics... news at 11.

Quick! Outlaw Something!

[Bob9113]

Clearly what we need in response to this new threat is more laws. We must outlaw things so that our children can be protected from these online predators. And while we may not be sure exactly what to outlaw, surely we can start by outlawing things that are new or used by strange people. It may not solve the problem, but we can't know for sure until we start outlawing things. In this new world of threats that have never been seen before, we have to have the courage to pass laws before we know what is wrong. The only other option is to wait until after the ambiguous threat has caused the damage it may or may not intend to cause. We simply cannot stand idly by and let that maybe happen.