Michael Jackson's death opens door to malware spread via online video
Be forewarned. Those videos on YouTube claiming to be the "last work of Michael Jackson" are actually fronts for a malware program that infects the viewers computer and steals their passwords. The spam messages claiming you can view the "latest unpublished photos" of The King of Pop takes you to a similar malware infection.
Security experts say it happens every time a celebrity dies or a calamitous event occurs. Spammers and Internet pirates play on fans' curiosity by building malicious campaigns around the death, claiming to have some "last" or "unpublished" work. Other wide-scale malware infections occurred due to campaigns linked to the swine flu outbreak and Saddam Hussein's execution.
Some campaigns use e-mail with spoofed addresses of legitimate news sites, while others use domain names related to the celebrity's name. These scam sites may claim the viewer needs to download a video player or other piece of software to enjoy the video or audio that's really malware. Other campaigns go the direct route, uploading videos with malicious software attached to sites like YouTube.
Following a few simple steps will keep your computer from becoming infected:
- If the e-mail isn't from someone you know personally, click on any of the links or even open it.
- If it looks like it's from someone you know, but isn't something you think they'd normally send, check the full headers (the To/From/Subject area) of the e-mail. You can reach this by clicking on the link in your Web mail or e-mail software that says "Full Headers" (Yahoo Mail) or "Show Original" (Gmail). Check the headers titled "Received" and "From" to ensure that the domains in them match. If they don't, it's likely a spoof e-mail.
- If you use video sites, keep your firewall enabled, your virus protection software on and updated, install an ad blocker add-on to your browser, and keep it on at all times.
- Only watch videos from known sources, such as respected news outlets using YouTube or users which are already in your YT favorites.
- If you own a business, familiarize your employees of these guidelines, too, to protect your network. Once one computer on a network is infected, the infection can easily spread to every other computer interconnected to that network.
Short Takes
- HTC's Android-based Hero phone will come with Adobe Flash Player 9 built in. The phone should hit European shelves in July and Asian and North American shelves later this year. Android also offers the Qik mobile video streaming/sharing application which iPhone has yet to offer.
- Google reports YouTube uploads spiked 400 percent since the iPhone 3G S has come out. It isn't just the iPhone making a difference though - during the past six months uploads to YouTube from all cellular devices surged by 1,700 percent. Google attribute the spikes to the number of video-enabled phones available, improvements in mobile to YouTube posting, and a new feature that lets users connect their YouTube account to their social networks.
- An Italian court postponed the trial of four Google executives due to the illness of an interpreter. It will commence in September. The trial relates to a video posted on the Italian YouTube site in 2006 in which four teenagers teased and mocked a disabled classmate.
- Jon Bon Jovi and Richie Sambora covered Ben E. King's "Stand By Me" with exiled Iranian singer Andy Madadian to create what the song's co-producer Don Was calls "a musical message of worldwide solidarity" for the Iranian people. The video of the recording session, in which Bon Jovi and Madadian duet in Farsi, originated on Was' show on My Damn Channel on Saturday, but was later uploaded to MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, among other sites.
"It is not for sale," Was said. "It wasn't intended to be on the Billboard charts, wasn't meant to be a hit record or even pressed on a CD. It's intended to be downloaded and shared by the Iranian people. The whole idea was to get it into Iran and tell them... to carry on, that the world is watching and we're with you." - Bloomberg reports online video sites like Hulu and TV.com have begun delivering ad rates greater than the televised networks pull. For example, ad time during The Simpsons on Hulu costs about $60/CPM but the same TV prime-time ad costs about $20-$40/CPM.
- Time Warner and Comcast have hit a wall, or rather a few, in their bid to force online video viewers to prove they subscribe to a televised video delivery service. First, they have yet to come up with an workable encryption system. Second, they have to develop something an easy to use system that doesn't turn off the users. Third, they must face the almost certain possibility that viewers will consider it an attempt to pull free content.
- YouTube now offers training for citizens journalists at The YouTube Reporters' Center. The channel provides short instructional videos from The New York Times, Washington Post and National Public Radio that teach the public skills to better report on events they witness.
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The references for this article include: Adobe's Flash to ship on new Android phone, Stephen Shankland, June 24, 2009; June 23rd, 2009; Qik rolls out live video streaming for Google Android, Matthew Miller; mocoNews - YouTube Sees 400 Percent Jump In Mobile Video Uploads Since New iPhone Launch, Dianne See Morrison,mocoNews.net, June 25, 2009; Online video sharing future still uncertain as Google trial delayed, Warwick Ashford June 2009; Jackson's death unleashes barrage of online scams, Jordan Robertson, June 28, 2009; Bon Jovi makes "Stand" with Iranian protest video, Gary Graff, June 29, 2009; Hulu, TV.com Getting Higher Ad Rates Than Their Network Counterparts, , June 25, 2009;Time Warner and Comcast's online video plan faces hurdles, Joe Flint, June 25, 2009; YouTube opens online 'school' for citizen journalists, Matt Hartley, Financial Post, June 29, 2009.
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This post blogged by Carlie Lawson. She is a hazards consultant, freelance writer, and weather nerd living in Norman, OK, also known as the weather capital of the United States.









7/2/09

