Fake Celebrity Websites Infecting The Unwary

[Humpty]

According to new data from McAfee, a user searching for a variety of Brad Pitt-themed items (wallpapers, screensavers, photos, etc.) has, on average, an 18 percent chance of encountering malware in one form or another. Such malware is often served up by a "fake" celebrity website whose primary purpose is to shove Trojans and worms into the desktops of the unwary. These websites differ from standard malware landing pads, insomuch as they may make an effort to appear as a legitimate source of news.

Ars Tecnica Article

[DennisD]

This could have been a post about "Fake Celebrities".

 

Loads of them about. I see them every night on TV. Celebrity Chefs, Celebrity Big Brother, Celebrity Weakest Link. The list goes on and on and on.....

 

Sad thing is, there are enough people about who practice celebrity worship, so there's gonna be a lot of hits from these sites.

[Humpty]

A rebuke from Sophos:

This sort of hyperbole about the dangers of cyberspace may fill column centimetres and attract casual readers, but it doesn?t actually help anyone. For a start, it simply isn?t true. If you go online and search for ?Pitt?, you do NOT have a one-in-five chance of getting infected, and suggesting that you do is just spreading FUD (fear, uncertainty and doubt).

Sophos Blog Article