McCain is Dead! Long Live McCain!
November 10, 2008
McCain is dead! Long live McCain!
Last Tuesday was a victory for democracy (Obama) and so on. But once again spammers and fraudsters found ways to try and hijack the moment. The BBC report that security threats built on news and developments from the momentous day have aimed to illicit personal information from people. (Link)
Security company F-Secure found a webpage that claimed to link visitors to a copy of Obama’s (amazing) acceptance speech but actually tricked them in to installing malware that stole their bank details.
Graham Cluley from Sophos stated the obvious when he said:
"E-mail users who are eager to get the latest scoop on Obama's monumental presidential win should be careful that they are not being tricked by conniving cybercriminals.”
While another spam message offered a “Barackumentary” DVD to anyone daft enough to hand over their credit card details, other email messages claimed that either Obama or John “Big in Kentucky” McCain had died. Clicking on the links brought you to a - yes, that’s right - Canadian pharmaceutical page.
Graham Cluley had an opinion on this. He said:
"Claiming that Barack Obama and John McCain have died, or that Cindy McCain has been exposed on video, takes a truly sick mind. Would you really want to buy anything from the kind of pond life behind these e-mails?"
Probably not. Unless they had a good deal on something for back pain. Mine has been killing me recently.
Spambama continues to do the rounds
I couldn’t decide whether to do “O-spama”, “Ospama”, “Spambama” as my tired pun of the week. I went for the latter in the end. What do you think?
But, seriously, if you get any emails that tell you it has Obama related stuff for you to buy or look at, don’t do it. Have you not listened to anything I’ve told you in the last six months?
The barrage of dangerous software and links continue unabated and I thought a second news item on it would be appropriate (read: I’m fresh out of ideas this week).
In one of the most worrying developments of recent times, Google AdWords has been used by spammers to try and lure people in to compromising personal information.
(Link)
The Register elaborate on the malware story referenced above, reporting that people who fell for it downloaded a rootkit called Adobe_flash9.exe which logged information and sent it off to the Ukraine marked “Attention Criminals!” With only 14 out of 36 tracked anti-virus applications recognising the malware last Wednesday morning, the threat was very real.
It’s not just McCain and Obama who have been used in this way though. Previous scams blackened the names of Hilary Clinton, Ron Paul and Mike Huckabee. I know – who would willingly click on a link to see a Mike Huckabee video?
China and Russia hack things
As a child I always thought that governments were above carrying out criminal activities. How naïve I was. Stories came to light today that both Obama and McCain’s computer systems were hacked during their campaigns with Russian and Chinese experts suspected. (Link)
Initially the Obama technical team thought they had a virus but FBI agents visited them and delivered these dramatic lines:
“You have a problem way bigger than what you understand. You have been compromised, and a serious amount of files have been loaded off your system.”
The agents went to great lengths to assure them that it was not their political opponents who hacked them - which is unfortunate in a way. I can imagine McCain’s crack IT team trying to explain how they got their hands on Obama’s policy documents.
“So, you did what now?”
“We hacked his system sir.”
“What did you hack with? Was it some sort of scythe? Or a machete?”
“No, sir. It’s a term for compromising the integrity of a computer system.”
“Do you mean that you embarrassed the computer system in some way? Perhaps spread some scurrilous gossip about it?”
“Sir…would you…like to play Sudoku?”
“Oh! Yes! But, uh, keep Sarah away. She doesn’t really ‘get it’.”
It’s helpful when reading the above to alternate between a light, confused voice and a regimented, serious one.
