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Fake Yahoo Greetings Site Pushes Malware
David Utter
Staff Writer
2007-12-05
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Greeting card spam serving as a cover for malicious downloads has been hitting inboxes recently in the form of fake Christmas cards.
 | | Fake Yahoo Greetings Site Pushes Malware |  |
Security firm F-Secure has spotted a few runs of Christmas card malware in circulation. The latest batch of these presents itself as a link to Yahoo's greeting card site, run in conjunction with American Greetings.
The fake URLs in the spam mask the true destination. If someone clicks on the URL in the message, the fake site appears with a request that the visitor download the latest Adobe Flash Player.
But instead of the latest version of Flash, the download brings in a malicious file. F-Secure said the payload infects the machine, collects information from it, and sends the details along to the malware's author.
Spammers have a long tradition of trying to play upon people's emotional responses to entice them into opening junk messages. When these were indirectly harmful, in trying to get people to take additional action like making a purchase, spam was at worst a nuisance.
The popularity of e-cards has made them a favored vector with criminals. American Greetings recently published a guide for self-protection from these pests, with suggestions on quickly noticing fake e-cards arriving in the inbox.
Zounds! Marvel Stomps On Comic Torrents!: The operator of British-based comic tracker ComicSearch was so dismayed by Marvel's pursuit of another tracker, ZCult FM, that he wrote an open letter to Marvel asking that they stop going after comic pirates.
As TorrentFreak noted, that open letter only served to let Marvel know they had another target to attack. ComicSearch's admin received and exchanged emails with a Marvel legal representative, who demanded the takedown of Marvel titles on the tracker.
After that exchange, ComicSearch's admin, 'Deicist', vented at the Marvel rep:
Your online service doesn't meet the needs of the people it's aimed at. The comics are lower quality than available ‘pirate' scans, you don't offer a downloadable option and the selection of titles available is small.
Instead of trying to stamp out the pirates, you should be making use of them. Why not set up some sort of licensing scheme? Many of my users have said since the clampdown that they'd be more than willing to pay a reasonable price for downloadable, high quality scans.
The exchange continued with the DMCA the topic of discussion, and Deicist wondering how an American law would affect him, a UK resident. That earned him a parting threat from the Marvel rep.
End result? Deicist may move ComicSearch to a location in Sweden, home of the Pirate Bay. That's the worst thing that Marvel's actions could have encouraged, but now it's possible Marvel's next legal missives will receive disdain from Deicist similar to how the Pirate Bay treats those threats.
About the Author:
David Utter is a business and technology writer for SecurityProNews and WebProNews.
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