Thank Goodness We Know Better
Thelma had to sit me down and explain to me why someone would want to be an internet machine hacker to send out a virus. What’s the reward in it for them?
Thelma explained that some people just need to be mean for meanness sake. “I thought that’s what the Republican Party is for,” interrupted Verdelia.
Thelma conceded that there’s a whole lot in common. Like Republicans, hackers think they’re showing you that they are smarter than you are. But they both make a mess of things.
And that’s where I saw the difference. There’s probably a few Republicans smarter than I am, but there’s not a one of them who’s going to heaven. However, I will admit that internet hacker are a lot smarter than I am. Honey, I have a PC and an iPad. I just have to pray that nobody is looking when I keep punching my PC monitor expecting it to do something. Repeatedly. Like a damfool. I can hear Buck Pochek snicker about it … even when he’s not there.
What brought this up is that there’s a new virus out there that customer Star warned us about.
Yesterday, at approximately 13:00 UTC, SophosLabs began receiving the first malicious emails targeting those interested in the upcoming United States presidential election.
The subject line for this spam campaign reads “CNN Breaking News – Mitt Romney Almost President”.
When opened it appears to be a CNN news alert with today’s top stories including the leading “More than 60 percent of votes will be in favor of Mitt Romney.”
Now, normally, I would assume that’s another batcrap crazy email from batcrap crazy Uncle Lenny who is convinced that Barack Obama is the devil, Stalin, and Lindsay Lohan wrapped into one neat package and I would delete it and say a prayer for Uncle Lenny’s sanity.
But, this sucker might fool me for a minute.
It looks kinda real. However, if I were to believe it, I would not click on the link. Nope, I would be too damn busy packing the salon up for outsourcing to the Caymans because that’s what Romney would do.
Thanks to Star for the heads up.
Thanks for the alert. I’m always concerned since my laptop was eaten up by a virus once, which is enough for me.
1I just put this on my Facebook page!
2I was trained in “ethical hacking” which means that they taught me some of the tricks that are used so that I could learn how to block against them. One of the things the instructor said over and over is that “Most malware is like a vampire; you have to invite it in.” Which means that it’s very difficult for someone to PUSH malware onto your machine so they need to trick you into clicking on a link that PULLS the malware in from outside.
Since then I have come to appreciate some of the come-ons and social engineering tricks that are used to get people to click on the link. Remember the “Anna Kornikova” virus? The “Paris Hilton video” virus? Clever stunts to get hornball teenagers (and some not-so-teen-agers) to click the link.
So always think twice. Even your friends may not be reliable.
3