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McAfee: Virus writers going local

Daniel Fleshbourne   on 21 February 2008 - 12:49 · 6 comments & 4915 views

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The program is nasty. It deletes pictures and movies from your hard drive and then it teases you: "Even though Mr. Kaneko was found guilty, you are still using Winny. I really hate such people," taunts an animated woman on your screen. Over the past two years virus writers have increasingly targeted their malicious programs to users in different regions of the globe, creating programs that are specially designed to infect users in countries like Japan, Brazil, China or Germany.

Take the taunting Trojan, which goes after users of the Winny file-sharing program. (Winny creator Isamu Kaneko was convicted of abetting copyright violations in late 2006) Winny is file-sharing software that is incredibly popular in Japan, but virtually unknown outside of the region. Still, it's been the target of several malware programs, according to Dave Marcus, security research and communications manager for McAfee Avert Labs. "Japan has some really unique factors that we just don't see anywhere else," he said. "There are a couple of malware writers in Japan who don't like people who illegally share content."

View: The full story @ InfoWorld

Post a comment · Send to friend Comments · There are 6 additional comments
#1 Ficman on 21 Feb 2008 - 15:20
#2 +Hell-In-A-Handbasket on 21 Feb 2008 - 15:30
betting money that the RIAA will employ these tactics
(1 reply) #3 Magallanes on 21 Feb 2008 - 16:47
And now, let's talk about emule and the amount of viruses, fakes files, fake server and such.
#3.1 P1R4T3 on 21 Feb 2008 - 20:16
Before installing anything from emule, I try it on virtual pc. If its good then i'll give it a go.
#4 Shiranui on 22 Feb 2008 - 00:29
"Winny" has already been dumped in favour of "Share" by most smart file sharers, though Share, by design, could suffer from similar exploits if targeted.
#5 ajua on 22 Feb 2008 - 05:44
"There are a couple of malware writers in Japan who don't like people who illegally share content."


RIAA/MPIAA anyone?

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