Hackers Exploit Bhutto Assassination

The tragic assassination of the former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto has prompted malware authors to jump into action. Security experts are reporting a number of incidents where hackers have tried to con the curious into downloading a video of the assassination which delivers malware instead, according to the security experts at McAfee Avert Labs Blog.

Just hours after Bhutto's assassination, McAfee reports, supposed videos of the act were being advertised on the Web. But there was a catch for those seeking to view the Web clips. In order to view the video the curious were prompted to download a new high-definition codec which was required to playback the video (see image above). The codec was instead malware looking to damage computers and steal information. No video was ever displayed.

It's sad to see a tragedy like Bhutto's assassination and doubly so with malware authors trying to cash in on it. The video decoys are reportedly making their rounds on the Web with mentions of the video posted in blog comment fields and links to fake videos showing up high in Google search results, according to McAfee.

This exploit is detectable by antivirus software by the names of Puper, VBS/Psyme or Generic Downloader.c depending on what version. If you don't know whether or not your system is up-to-date, it's likely not. So update it now.

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