malware - The Art of the Prank

Submitted by W.J. Elvin III:

Facebook Users Warned of Sexy ‘Candid Camera Prank’ Attack
by Ellen Messmer
NetworkWorld
May 18, 2010

Security firms are warning Facebook users to beware of what’s being called the “Candid Camera Prank” attack recently spotted on Facebook that tries to use the lure of a sexy video of a scantily clad woman on a bicycle to download a video player that’s actually Hotbar adware, and maybe worse.

Also: FBI details most difficult Internet scams

Websense and Sophos are among the security firms pointing out the dangers of the “sexiest video ever” trick, posted automatically on users’ profile pages, that shows a message posted on the walls of Facebook users, seemingly by their friends, of a movie thumbnail of a woman on a bicycle wearing a short skirt in a video entitled “Candid Camera Prank.” Continue reading “Facebook Candid Camera Prank: Adware or Worse”

Mac Game: Art project or malware?
by Elinor Mills
CNET.com
November 4, 2009

LoosemaqueWarning_200 As part of his Master of Fine Arts thesis project, Zach Gage wrote a game to run on Macintosh computers that resembles Space Invaders but with a digital roulette twist–for every alien space ship the player destroys a random file on the computer is deleted.

“Lose/Lose is a video-game with real life consequences. Each alien in the game is created based on a random file on the player’s computer. If the player kills the alien, the file it is based on is deleted. If the player’s ship is destroyed, the application itself is deleted,” the computer technology design major wrote on his Web site.

“At what point does our virtual data become as important to us as physical possessions? If we have reached that point already, what real objects do we value less than our data?” he asks. Continue reading “Lose/Lose: Playing with Fire in Cyberspace”