While we're in the early days of watching the reverberations of the death of Osama bin Laden on the world stage, computer scammers have already been using it to mess up our computers.
While we're in the early days of watching the reverberations of the death of Osama bin Laden on the world stage, computer scammers have already been using it to mess up our computers.
Many of us woke up to phony posts on our Facebook walls from sites promising to show video of the Navy Seal take-down.
A Los Angeles Times piece about the phenomenon calls them "malicious links."
No official photos or videos of Bin Laden's body have been released, so if you're in search of pictures or video: Be careful, cautions the paper. Not only will you be broadcasting your interest in seeing the grim stuff, you might also upload a virus.
(Warning: the Times piece [http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/technology/2011/05/bin-laden-death-scam-virus-facebook-google.html] includes graphic screen grabs of some of the worst offenders.)
"On Google, searches related to Bin Laden direct users to Web pages where they are offered malicious software, said Chester Wisniewski, a security advisor from Sophos. The bad links falsely alert users that their computer may be infected and that they should download virus-scanning software, which is often a virus itself.
"One Facebook posting appearing to be from the BBC trumpeted a link titled 'Osama bin Laden Killed (LIVE VIDEO).' When clicked, the link takes the user to an outside page modeled to look like Facebook, where it asks the user to enter a verification code. When the user submits the code, the link is then posted to the user's Facebook account," reports the piece.
A tip from the Times: "Look closely before you click on anything that looks odd at all. One test is to hover your cursor over the link without clicking. The browser generally will show you the address of the linked site - if you've never heard of it or if it has a name different from what the link text advertises, don't click."
While we're in the early days of watching the reverberations of the death of Osama bin Laden on the world stage, computer scammers have already been using it to mess up our computers.
Many of us woke up to phony posts on our Facebook walls from sites promising to show video of the Navy Seal take-down.
A Los Angeles Times piece about the phenomenon calls them "malicious links."
No official photos or videos of Bin Laden's body have been released, so if you're in search of pictures or video: Be careful, cautions the paper. Not only will you be broadcasting your interest in seeing the grim stuff, you might also upload a virus.
(Warning: the Times piece [http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/technology/2011/05/bin-laden-death-scam-virus-facebook-google.html] includes graphic screen grabs of some of the worst offenders.)
"On Google, searches related to Bin Laden direct users to Web pages where they are offered malicious software, said Chester Wisniewski, a security advisor from Sophos. The bad links falsely alert users that their computer may be infected and that they should download virus-scanning software, which is often a virus itself.
"One Facebook posting appearing to be from the BBC trumpeted a link titled 'Osama bin Laden Killed (LIVE VIDEO).' When clicked, the link takes the user to an outside page modeled to look like Facebook, where it asks the user to enter a verification code. When the user submits the code, the link is then posted to the user's Facebook account," reports the piece.
A tip from the Times: "Look closely before you click on anything that looks odd at all. One test is to hover your cursor over the link without clicking. The browser generally will show you the address of the linked site - if you've never heard of it or if it has a name different from what the link text advertises, don't click."