BS: One every minute...

Subject: RE: BS: One every minute...
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 24 May 07 - 04:00 AM

Oooops. I clicked preview, but must have "dragged" it off when I hit submit.

Anyone who's curious about it, can find a bit more about the free virus offer. I had planned to post it, but the 'cat was down for a few hours when I came across it.


Hundreds Click on 'Click Here to Get Infected' Ad

The ad that was posted read:

Drive-By Download
Is your PC virus-free?
Get it infected here!
drive-by-download.info

"Stevens says that he designed his ad to make it look fishy, but he had no problem getting Google to accept it and has had no complaints to date. And, although a healthy amount of people clicked on it, he said there's "no way to know what motivated them to click on my ad. I did not submit them to an IQ-test."

John

Subject: RE: BS: One every minute...
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 24 May 07 - 03:55 AM

Anyone who's curious about it, can find a bit more about the free virus offer. I had planned to post it, but the 'cat was down for a few hours when I came across it.

Drive-By Download
Is your PC virus-free?
Get it infected here!
drive-by-download.info

There's more, but I'll omit other details, except for the researcher's comment:

"Stevens says that he designed his ad to make it look fishy, but he had no problem getting Google to accept it and has had no complaints to date. And, although a healthy amount of people clicked on it, he said there's "no way to know what motivated them to click on my ad. I did not submit them to an IQ-test."

John

Subject: RE: BS: One every minute...
From: Gurney
Date: 24 May 07 - 03:26 AM

I have a virus pinned to my office wall. It's a MANUAL virus, suggesting that I delete all the files on my computer.
Sent, apparently, by Paddy O'Hacker at [e-mail]


Honestly.

Subject: RE: BS: One every minute...
From: gnu
Date: 23 May 07 - 05:11 PM

Minds me of the old Playboy cartoon with the caption, "But, honey, it's okay. I don't care if the right one is bigger than the left one."

Subject: RE: BS: One every minute...
From: Peace
Date: 23 May 07 - 05:02 PM

AHEM: Like Bill Clinton, I did link to the pic but I didn't actually LOOK at it.

Subject: RE: BS: One every minute...
From: Peace
Date: 23 May 07 - 05:01 PM

Ahem: Like Bill Clinton, I did link to the pic but I didn't actually LOOK at tit.

Subject: RE: BS: One every minute...
From: Peace
Date: 23 May 07 - 05:00 PM

Like Bill Clinton, I did link to the pic but I didn't actually LOOK at them.

Subject: RE: BS: One every minute...
From: Rapparee
Date: 23 May 07 - 04:54 PM

Peace, that poor girl is going to catch a nasty chest cold if she's not careful.

Subject: RE: BS: One every minute...
From: Peace
Date: 23 May 07 - 04:03 PM

No virus, just bad sniffles.

Subject: RE: BS: One every minute...
From: Bee-dubya-ell
Date: 23 May 07 - 03:56 PM

"Curious or stupid?" Nah. I'd say most of 'em probably thought it was a joke of some kind and clicked to find what the punch-line was.

Anything so blatant is probably not going to be for real. If someone wants to infect your computer they're probably going to try to trick you by offering something desirable, not tell you up front that they're going to infect your computer. "Stupid" is clicking on a link to a "FREE photo of Britney Spears' tits!" and getting a virus instead.

Subject: RE: BS: One every minute...
From: Peace
Date: 23 May 07 - 03:41 PM

Mikko Hypponen is out to lunch. There were no more than 408 people. I clicked it twice.

Subject: BS: One every minute...
From: beardedbruce
Date: 23 May 07 - 03:33 PM

Free computer virus finds willing victims
POSTED: 12:03 p.m. EDT, May 23, 2007

HELSINKI, Finland (Reuters) -- Computer specialist Didier Stevens put up a simple text advertisement on the Internet offering downloads of a computer virus for people who did not have any.

Surprisingly, he found as many as 409 people clicking on the ad saying "Is your PC virus-free? Get it infected here!" during a 6-month advertising campaign on Google's Adword, said the IT security expert.

"Some of them must have clicked on it by mistake. Some must have been curious or stupid," said Mikko Hypponen, head of research at data security firm F-Secure.

There was no virus involved, it was an experiment aiming to show these kinds of advertising systems can be used for malicious intent, Stevens told Reuters.