Good to know!
Posted on 07/26/2004 10:06:01 PM PDT by Choose Ye This Day
Hacker's Osama bin Laden Hoax Terrorizes Computers
By David Sheets 07/26/04 9:23 PM PT
A hacker apparently sprinkled thousands of newsgroups with rumors of bin Laden's death, saying CNN reporters found the terrorist leader hanged, and included a link supposedly showing pictures of bin Laden's body.
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A word of advice about clicking on those alleged Osama bin Laden "suicide" pictures online: Don't. For one thing, the pictures are a hoax. And for another, they connect curious viewers to a damaging "Trojan horse" program.
Word about the images spread fast late last week and through the weekend via "Usenet" postings, instead of the usual method of attaching them to e-mail. The Usenet consists of messages on various subjects posted to servers over a broad network. Each collection of messages is called a newsgroup.
A hacker apparently sprinkled thousands of newsgroups with rumors of bin Laden's death, saying CNN reporters found the terrorist leader hanged, and included a link supposedly showing pictures of bin Laden's body.
But the link instead points viewers to a Web site where they download "Backdoor," a Trojan horse that compromises the computer's security, according to a statement by the British security firm Sophos. "It seems this time that the hacker has focused on the public's morbid curiosity and appetite for news on the war against terror," said Graham Cluley, a senior technology consultant for Sophos.
Trojan horses are programs that pretend to be benign, yet contain malicious code that forces computers to perform unexpected functions. While they're not considered viruses because they don't replicate, the programs can be just as destructive.
Getting Wise to the Hoax Sophos says that newsgroup users were getting wise to the hoax and that it now considers the threat of exposure to be low, but the company still urged caution.
A bigger threat is the latest version of the MyDoom worm, which rides aboard e-mail attachments and can replicate until a user's computer shuts down. Late Monday, security analysts elevated to "severe" the exposure threat from MyDoom. Sophos offers instructions on how to deal with both the bin Laden threat and MyDoom on its Web site, www.sophos.com.
Other security firms such as Symantec Corp. (www.symantec.com) and McAfee Inc. (www.mcafee.com) also offer instructions.
The news of bin Laden's death have been greatly exaggerated.
Oops. Sorry about the 2nd paragraph. Please skip the unintended HP propaganda.
This is getting really bad when we can get a virus by clicking on a picture online??
FYI
We all have our weaknesses I guess.
LOL, I've gotta tell you that it was startling to see your screen name in my comments!!
Thankfully with my firewall and antivirus I've been pretty safe if I can just keep my grandaughter from downloading anything!!
Well, by clicking on the link to the picture, anyway.
I mean, I'd LOVE to see Osama's rotting corpse dangling from a bridge somewhere, but it's not worth blowing up my PC.
Same guano, different day, I guess.
You'd think those hackers would be creative and original, and come up with something new. I guess they don't need to.
LOL, laughing at the way you put it!! It is getting bad though when you can get a virus by going to a web site and my daughter said she heard something about getting it from some flashing popup signs??
Note this first image and how it isn't active. That is, the arrow doesn't turn into a little hand, which would indicate it has an active link, as compared to the second image, which I've coded to go to that computer site.
They're just getting more brazen at exploiting common web practices.
My Mac never fears computer terror!
Thanks JoJo, I understand it even if I don't understand how it's done. Wonder what is eventually going to happen with all this going on?
How are you doing JoJo, haven't teased you in awhile!!?
The links are to zip files, not image files directly. The links I saw posted are hosted on a server in Seoul, South Korea, BTW.
How did you know that CJ, and where are links like these being posted??
I'm asking you a question but I'm heading for bed so I don't get the 'evil eye' from my husband, lOL.
Howdy! I'm hanging in there.
What to do with the scummos? I've more than once suggested cutting a few of their fingers off, but bleeding hearts would protest, surely. Oh well, the laws have no teeth, you can't send the FBI to Russia and get those so and so's, and there are plenty of idiots who keep the spammers financially alive.
What a mess it's become. I'm sometimes ready to just unplug this thing and walk away from it.
You seem to be the guy to ask. My computer guy had me install webroot. How is that for fighting off things like this?
Sorry. I'm a computer idiot. I merely posted this thread because I'm the gullible type of person that would be really, really tempted to click on a link showing a dead Osama. I mean, I still have a bullet-riddled picture of Osama's face up on my office wall from that day on the shooting range a year and a half ago.
Hopefully, someone else can tell you about Webroot. I'm definitely not qualified.
"Sorry. I'm a computer idiot"
Me too. I bought my first computer just to get onto FR.
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