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The Bad Kind of Viral

By Steve Huff 7/08/12 12:15am

The Bad Kind of Viral

These guys want to help. Really.

Will Your Internet Die a Horrible Death On Monday?

Will your Internet suddenly vanish on Monday, July 9? Will you click on that new cute kitten video only to see full-blown failure, white noise, an Indian head placard, as the vicious “Alureon/DNSChanger bot” takes its final victims down in a mini-Webageddon? No, probably not.

Yes, as of 12:01 a.m. on July 9 the FBI will remove its phalanx of protective servers that have been keeping still-infected computers safely online. However the panic over the possibility of losing Internet access is probably, at this point, out-of-proportion to the actual level of infection. In the United States the number of still-infected computers runs in the 100s of thousands. Out of hundreds of millions of computers. Think about those odds for a moment–chances are excellent you are not among the infected, the unclean. Read More

By Foster Kamer 1/18/12 8:56pm

The Bad Kind of Viral

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Embarrassing Viral Video of You Being Stupid in Public: Not a Violation of Your Privacy, Court Rules

Remember the 2004 clip of that pompous DEA agent who shot himself in the thigh in front of a community center classroom? It was like an awful deleted scene from Breaking Bad meets a bloopers reel, or so the millions who watched it seemed to think. The DEA agent wasn’t so happy, especially with the gossipy agency he worked for, who passed the video around enough to go viral. He’s since sued the DEA for violating his privacy, by letting the video get out into the open. The result? Read More

By Nitasha Tiku 1/17/12 10:58am

The Bad Kind of Viral

via metrolic.com

Awesomely-Named Russian Koobface Gang Allegedly Responsible for Non-Awesome Facebook Virus

Investigators at Facebook and a number of independent computer security firms, including Sophos, allege that five-man Russian gang is responsible for a computer worm that has been plaguing social networks, including Facebook, since 2008. The ne’er-do-wells, who call themselves the Koobface gang (because why not), have been “living comfortably” and “in plain sight” in St. Petersburg, according to the New York Times.

The millions they’ve gleaned from online schemes has been spent on luxury trips to Monte Carlo, Bali, and Turkey (see aforementioned why not).

Facebook, however, plans to put an end to all that. Today, says the Times, the social network plans to begin sharing intel about the group and how to fight them. “It believes public namings can make it harder for such groups to operate and send a message to the criminal underground.” Read More