180solutions' Serves Up MySpace Spyware
Just when we think that MySpace couldn't sink any lower in our esteems unless a gigantic bottomless pit opened up beneath the corporate headquarters and the tentacles of Cthulhu him/her/itself coiled around it to drag it into the chthonic pit... MySpace starts infecting users with spyware.
To be fair, it isn't the execrable emo service that's responsible. Rather, it's our good chums at 180solutions. They've launched two fronts on MySpace trying to infect users: the first is an ad that encourages users to install a free toolbar to help protect "kids from child predators." Classy! The second is a simulacrum of an embedded video.
When clicked, both scams install 180solutions' Zango software on the system, which places a .dat file on a user's machine containing over 166,000 words that trigger pop-ups when displayed on screen.
Someone just nuke both 180solutions and MySpace from orbit already. It's the only way to be sure.
Zango Accused of Deceiving MySpace users [Security Pro News]
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Bah, bad href formatting up there on my part. The site is DollIdol.com. Not that you really want to go there anyways. It's just a great example of how full of shit 180 solutions is when they say they don't target children.
Well I just can't win today. Ignore both my bad urls and just type the thing yourself if you still care. I really need to start sleeping more or drinking less not sure which one.
My sincere apologies for the triple post. And consider this post my vote for and edit feature.
shamless bump for my friends much awesome journaling site. melodramatic.com
The Great Old Ones might destroy our universe, but please do not insult them by refering to them in the same article as Myspace or 180! Evil out of space and time I can respect. Myspace? Never.
180 has been distributing vidoes like this for a while on bit torrent sites and through p2p applications like Kazaa. It just uses the built in(and severly flawed) Windows Media Player DRM which allows a video creator to require a license be downloaded in order to play the video. 180 forces you to install their crapware before they give you the license to watch the stupid video.
This method of distribution isn't what's scary, but the way they are pushing it this time. The average MySpace user is exactly the type of person who adware companies like 180 prey on. And despite what their PR machine will tell you, they do target teenagers. How many people over 18 do you think use sites like Doll Idol?
Game over man, game over.