Lindsay Lohan may harm your computer’s health
Soon-to-be jailbird Lindsay Lohan has teamed up with Symantec to advise people to be cautious when searching for information about her.
Cybercriminals use popular, trending topics as bait to lure people to websites that deliver a malicious payload – and it appears that Miss Lohan has become just such a topic. According to Norton, searches likely to return malicious results include “Lindsay Lohan Jail”, “Lilo in Prison” and “Lohan Sentence.” And as much as 50% of these search results could be “poisoned”, meaning it’s very possible you could click on a bad link that could infect your computer.
Norton’s media release quoted Lilo as saying:
“I know I am very newsworthy, especially with everything going on and I’d hate to see my current situation cause frustration or damage to my fans. If my friends and fans want to know what’s going on with me, they need to stick to reliable news media outlets and not click on just any link in a search result. Better yet, please follow my Twitter feed and get the news straight from me!”
Will she be able to update her Twitter account while in the slammer? Who knows. But anyway…
It’s not only Lilo-related searches that could put you at risk. As Norton point out in their media release:
“Cyber criminals simply monitor newsworthy, trending news topics, then infect dozens of legitimate and fake webpages with viruses, spyware, keylogging programs (where criminals can monitor everything you type), and other malicious software (“Malware”) hoping to gain access to people’s computers and steal their personal information.”
And scammers have in the past actually used the name of the component of a Norton product to lure people to malicious websites. From a story by Brian Krebs of the Washington Post:
“The bad guys know that people are interested in this search term, and appear to have latched on to it already. I’d advise readers to be extremely careful about randomly clicking on every link returned in a Web search for “pifts.exe”: Some of the top searches (currently the 3rd and 4th result in a Google search) are Web sites that try to install malicious software when you visit them. Both results take you to sites that use Javascript attacks to try and foist rogue antivirus products (ah, the irony).”
Some tips to help you avoid becoming a victim:
- Keep your system up-to-date with security patches.
- Keep your antivirus product updated.
- Ignore spam.
- Use a safe browsing tool such as Web of Trust.
- Finally and most importantly, use your common sense. Get your news from reputable sites, don’t blindly follow links sent via friends on social networking sites (their account could have been compromised) and don’t go searching for nude prison pictures.
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Fans??? Newsworthy??? Lindsay Lohan is not newsworthy, the only reason people pay attention is because she is just like a train wreck, you just cant look away. I think people are waiting to see if and when she has a total meltdown. Im sure there are bets being made as i type this. Get over yourself Lohan. If you want people to pay attention stop acting like a spoiled brat and grow up.
Andrew, the point of the article is not that Lilo is newsworthy but that the sheep among us don’t know how to tell a good site from a bad site. H*ll, that might be true of me, and I am a careful browser. Any famous name will do, whether the “celeb” be good, bad, stupid, gorgeous, ugly…. many (most?) people’s thirst for dirt (or happy gossip) on the stars will lead them to be less than careful on the internet.
I have to agree with Becca. Andre3w, you’re right in your opinion but you missed the whole point of the article (and I’m assuming that you’re not one of the cybercriminals here). The message is that there are bad people out there who will take advantage of people in the news (good or bad or just plain ugly) to infect your machine. At best, your infected machine will be used to spread more spam. At worst, your machine will be participating in child pornography or cyber-attacks, and the police wil be seizing your equipment and you’ll be facing some really hard questions “down at the station”. Absolute worst case, your on-line banking has been compromised and your bank accounts have been shifted to a far-off country and you’re out of pocket for everything. That’s how the cybercriminals operate — they don’t care about you, just money.
The purpose of the message is to spread the word about being safe, not to sell Lilo or anti-virus or personal firewalls. This is a public service announcement, warning you to be careful out there because not everyone plays by the rules and is nice and kind.
I certainly will give kudos (small ones) to Lilo for stepping forward and spreading the word. Doesn’t mean that I’m a fan but someone does have a brain cell active and is exercising it.
Well thank you for agreeing with me on some facts but honestly if in todays age you dont have virus/spyware/malware etc protection you deserve to get bugs in your computer. dont keep personal information on your computer put it on a jump drive or some other form of removable media. this has been a must for the past 10-15 years at least. its like having sex without a condom. As for lohan my comment still stands. this is just a publicity thing probably to help pay for her lawyers.
I donb;t usually follow any of those things, but her face kept turning up on my home page, whereas all I have heard about is her problames of various types. So I clicked on one. If anyone knows how to get rid of the malware I contracted please help. It has inaxctivated my spyware and basically taken over
Freeman, you’re basically up sh&t creek without a paddle until you get your computer over to a qualified service center and have them sanitize your system.
You proabbly could do it yourself, but your description of the problem says that you’re basically clueless about firewalls, anti-firuys, spyware scrapers.
You need help and education. Check with a professional.
Sorry to sound so blunt but you read all the warnings and still persisted in doing just what you were warned not to do.
BTW, did you ever shoot out one of your eyes with a rubber dart or BB gun? You just did the cyber equivalent of what your parents warned you time and again ot to do.
ROFL if she is Lilo … then what horrific equally moronic male would be stitch ??
hahaha
but seriously.. She is a moron. and yes people should ALWAYS be vigilant with your surfing.
Did I mention that Lohan is a moron? yes? ok.. just wanted to confirm that.
This is too funny for words. What makes Lindsey Lohan think that anyone would want to search for information about her. She is a loser, a jailbird and not worthy of a moment’s attention. Get a Life Lindsey
[...] recently warned that Lindsay Lohan may harm your computer’s health. How? As I outlined in that post (quote courtesy of [...]