Social Networks Targeted With Trojan

This post was written by admin on March 10, 2008
Posted Under: PC Security,Social Networking,Trojan

Details have been released of a new Trojan called Orkut.AT.

At present this uses the Orkut social network to spread.

This is how it appears:
Initially, a profile appears in the user's scrapbook which contains an image from a YouTube video of Giselle, a contestant in the Brazilian edition of the Big Brother reality TV show.

This is the bait to entice users to click the link.

Once clicked a message is displayed informing the user that the video cannot be played as it is missing a codec and a link is provided to download the correct codec.

If users try to download the codec they will be downloading the Orkut.AT trojan to their computer, and very cleverly the trojan redirects users to a web page where they will find the video.

Social networks are used by millions of people globally and they create their own communities online which is why the cyber-crooks are now turning their attention to them to spread their malicious programs.

For them it is an easy way to reach millions of people in a very short time period.

All computer users should ensure that they have up to date anti-virus and all patches installed.

As a precaution, do NOT click any links received though social networks, even though they might seem to come from reliable sources.

Play safe and type them directly into the browser's address bar.