July 17, 2006 5:30 PM PDT
World Cup head butt used as Trojan bait
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Miscreants are using the incident in the final of the soccer World Cup as bait to install malicious code onto the PCs of unwitting sports fans, Websense Security Labs warned on Friday.
Websense, which monitors Web security threats, has found one Web site that looks like an official FIFA World Cup 2006 site, but isn't. The lead story is on Zidane's head butt in the final against Italy, asking: "What did Materazzi say to Zidane?" That refers to Italy's Marco Materazzi, who was knocked over when Zidane thrust his head into Materazzi's chest.
When visiting the fake site, people can be infected with a Trojan horse downloader which, in turn, downloads additional malicious software from the site, Websense said in an alert. "This potentially occurs without user interaction," Websense said.
The malicious site was hosted in the United States and up and running on Friday, waiting for new victims. It uses the underground "Web Attacker" toolkit, which is sold on the Web and facilitates Web-based attacks, Websense said.
For those who are still wondering what the head butt was all about, Zidane publicly apologized earlier this month for being sent off the field with a red card, but claimed he did not regret his actions against Materazzi. Zidane stated that Materazzi insulted his mother and sister in the seconds leading up to the incident.
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People with too much free time.
I just use Taceo. That way I don't end up going into websites with malicious intentions or opening up an attachment that contains a virus or worm. I know who's sending me what, and whether it's safe enough to open. But then again, people have been using major events and people for years now to bait people into voluntarily clicking on links...
http://www.iwantmyess.com/?p=71
It seems more like common sense now to not open up such emails titled "Naked pictures of Britney!" But just in case common sense fails us, which it does from time to time....that's when it's good to have a backup plan.