Fresh when it gets here from
Julie Barrett
Friday, November 23, 2007
Hope you had a good holiday. We did the over the river and through the woods thing. The cats were most displeased that we did not partake in the Bird Feast here at home.
My computer spent much of the day in virus scan hell. Yesterday morning I did one of my searches for unauthorized reproduction of journal content. Boy, did I find something: A site pushing Zlob. Zlob, you ask? It's a Trojan that can include all sorts of stuff including a password stealer, a back door, a DNS changer (so it looks like you're at the bank but you're not) and other not-so-goodies.
I reported the site to the hosting service, then disabled my network connection and started scanning. Then I rebooted and scanned again. Took lots of time, but I'm paranoid.
The scans found nothing. I have decent protection and a fully-patched system. Still, it pays to be paranoid.
Zlob is generally passed via a fake video code. In the case of this web site, there was an embedded video player on the screen and I got a message stating that I needed an ActiveX file in order to play the video. Of course, I got the heck away from the site immediately. The thing about Zlob is that you have to give your permission for it to install, but I had no idea whether or not the site was trying to pass other nasties in the background.
And Mac users, you are not immune. There is a DNS changer posting as a fake codec. Like Zlob, it won't install unless you give it permission. These rely on social engineering. Of course, you want to see the funny video. Just download this software so your system can view it.
Don't fall for it.
Here's the best practice: If you visit a site that tells you that you need a plug-in, determine what you need and go to the plug-in manufacturer's web site. Adobe for PDF, for example. This will help keep your system safe.
Tags: Technology