Slashdot Mirror
Homer Simpson and the Kimya Botnet
An anonymous reader writes "As all hardcore Simpsons fans know, Chunkylover53@aol.com was revealed to be Homer Simpsons' email address in one particular episode, registered by one of the shows writers, who would reply to fans as Homer himself. After a flood of messages, 'Homer' signed off — seemingly forever. Well in the last few days, security company Facetime Communications reports that anyone who had Homer on their AIM buddy list would have noticed his sudden reappearance. Unfortunately for all, he appears to have been hacked and pushing malware links which deposit those unlucky enough to run the file into a Turkish Botnet. The message claims the file is a 'web exclusive' episode of the TV show — an interesting way of targeting a specific group of fans who would assume Homers return would only coincide with something special like (say) a TV episode just for them. What I want to know is, is Homer smart enough to run an AV scan?"
Opening unknown files could get you hacked. Doh!
Take Nobody's Word For It.
They have the Internet on computers now?
What I want to know is, is Homer smart enough to run an AV scan?
Won't do much good if he's being spoofed.
Haw haw!
I did a bit of googling and remembered that episode of The Simpsons. I could tell that he was hax0red (probably an expired username) and part of some scheme. Funny how such things from so long ago are still saved somewhere. I have usernames from people I haven't talked to in 8 years on my AIM buddylist.
Wow! A Turkish botnet!
"Kill 'em all and let Root sort 'em out"
Sounds more like Ralph.
I'm sure the number of attempted infections from this attack are very small in the scale of typical virus'. But I would not be surprised if the number of successful infections was pretty high, relatively speaking.
I guess I'm not hardcore enough. Does this mean I have to turn in my geek card?
Tic-Tac-Toe, Global Thermonuclear War, and relationships all have the same winning move.
I just tried adding to my list but he's not line.
I work for the Department of Redundancy Department.
"Hello, this is Homer Simpson aka Chunkylover53! The court has ordered me to IM every person in town to apologize for my botnet scheme. I'm sorry. If you can find it in your heart to forgive me, send one dollar to : Sorry Dude, 742 Evergreen Terrace, Springfield. You have the power!"
God, schmod. I want my monkey man!
geek card revoked: misquoting.
"Smithers, you're quite good at turning me on."
D'oh!
mmmmmmmm... trojans...
"from the why-you-little dept."
My son and I used to do this all the time. Problem is, he's bigger and stronger than me now. Maybe I can trick him with a magic rock...
Recall that there was a Simpsons episode where he salvages an auto-caller to run a telemarketing scam on the residents of Springfield.
Also recall that Homer actually did figure out how to setup a website and post "blogs" in his stint as Mr. X.
So, all someone has to do is give him a spiel of how a particular program or an infected computer (not known to Homer of course) can provide him with easy money, and he'll be more than happy to distribute that program en masse or very quickly hook up his computer to the internet. :-)
All TV characters should have e-mail addresses. It's a no-brainer. It makes it possible for the creators of the characters to know exactly what their fans are like and, more importantly, what the fans want the character to be like.
It keeps the character alive after the TV show expires.
Personally I believe that figures in great paintings should have websites. Who wouldn't want to write to Simonetta Vespucci for advice on romance? The responders should be older employees who have been semi-retired by their companies.
This would be most applicable to Japan, where corporations bought Renaissance paintings for elaborate prices in the 1980s and have been keeping hidden away in vaults since then. They also have older employees that they can't fire but allocate no work for them to do, so they just sit at their desks all day. Young people from all over the world could write e-mails to their favorite art painting characters and have them answered by people who have life experience and wisdom. This would be good for everyone. And it's no more weird than people entering MUDs and Second Life programs as an alternative reality.
Ha ha .... it was Nelson's mail.
Love many, trust a few, do harm to none.
Given that the link is clearly an executable file NOT a video file or a link to a page with streaming video, who would be stupid enough to fall for it?
Oh yeah, AIM users.
Is that thing still around !?!?
Is that link a Turkish bongnet?
Mmmmmmmmmmmmmm, organized crime.....
of course Homer can fix it. he just needs to press the "Any" key then drink a "Tab".
*plays the Apogee theme song music*
I saw I logged on 2 days ago. I realized that it was a link to malware or trojan but downloaded it and ran it anyway because I was running Ubuntu. It just gave an error saying it couldn't connect to the "photo server". Now that username is pushing an adult dating website.
Mmmmm... Turkish...
..."Worst botnet ever"
He's a NUCLEAR SAFETY EXPERT at a Nuclear Power Plant. I am sure that qualifies him to run antivirus. Right?
It's not that hard to explain how the address fell into "the wrong hands". AOL/AIM names that are not used for a certain length of time expire back into the pool that anybody can register.
Upon inserting the trojan on your box, their message reads...
"You've been hacked... purple monkey dishwasher"
GAH!
If you can read this... 01110101 01110010 00100000 01100001 00100000 01100111 01100101 01100101 01101011
Ever been in a Turkish Botnet?
If you get an IM from jewishclown57@aol.com, that is totally legit.
S14E08 - The Dad Who Knew Too Little
(#EABF03 / SI-1403) aired January 12th 2003
is it a bad sign, that i found it within 1-2 minutes?
The MAFIAA is a bunch of mindless jerks who will be the first up against the wall when the revolution comes
I for one welcome our new botnet scamming overlords.
Ginga no Rekshiya Mata Each page.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q6pyzkaYD7A
Remember Homer, the internet is so much more than a global pornography network.
Winkey shortcut mapping for 64bit windows. WinKeyPlus