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Don’t click, it’s a virus
The next time your friend sends you a link saying ‘LOL! Check out this funny video!,’ you’d rather not click on it. It won’t be so funny when the link you clicked either installs a trojan virus on your system or causes embarrassing porn sites to pop up right in the middle of an important board meeting.
A new chat virus is doing the rounds among Gmail users that is bent on rummaging through their electronic address book to ‘infect’ all contacts. Raman K., an employee of ADP had an embarrassing experience with one such link that put him in an awkward spot at work. “I was working on my business presentation when I got a link from one of my colleagues. I assumed it was a link to a portal we were developing. Turns out it was not. To my horror, hundreds of porn links just popped up right at the moment when my team leader decided to check on the progress. I couldn’t close the sites too as my system just hung. And my team lead wasn’t amused either till I told him what happened.” he says.
A new chat virus is doing the rounds among Gmail users that is bent on rummaging through their electronic address book to ‘infect’ all contacts. Raman K., an employee of ADP had an embarrassing experience with one such link that put him in an awkward spot at work. “I was working on my business presentation when I got a link from one of my colleagues. I assumed it was a link to a portal we were developing. Turns out it was not. To my horror, hundreds of porn links just popped up right at the moment when my team leader decided to check on the progress. I couldn’t close the sites too as my system just hung. And my team lead wasn’t amused either till I told him what happened.” he says.
If getting embarrassed in front of a class of 60 is not exactly your idea of fun, steer clear away from any such links, feels Suchita Lahari, a student of Pragathi College. “I had to do a visual presentation project on the Internet. And I brought my brother’s laptop to college for it. When I switched on the computer, my brother’s G Talk got automatically logged on. A link pops up in a window and I unknowingly click on that during the presentation. Before I knew it, all these pop-up ads for porn flood my computer screen which is also being projected through a screen which the whole class and even my HOD was watching. The more I tried to close them, the more they multiplied. It was the most embarrassing moment in college ever,” she says.
Many others have fallen a victim to ‘phishing’ after clicking on such chat links. Sanjana Reddy, a student of Loyola College says, “I was online chatting with friends when one of them sent me a link. Since her account was already infected by the virus, it automatically sends out links to everyone on her list. I clicked on it and it took me to a site which asked me to “authenticate” my Gmail ID. I typed in my ID and password and my account was completely hacked.”
“What’s worse, even my relatives and teachers who were on my list received virus links from my ID. I had a bad time explaining the situation to everyone,” she adds.
Many others have fallen a victim to ‘phishing’ after clicking on such chat links. Sanjana Reddy, a student of Loyola College says, “I was online chatting with friends when one of them sent me a link. Since her account was already infected by the virus, it automatically sends out links to everyone on her list. I clicked on it and it took me to a site which asked me to “authenticate” my Gmail ID. I typed in my ID and password and my account was completely hacked.”
“What’s worse, even my relatives and teachers who were on my list received virus links from my ID. I had a bad time explaining the situation to everyone,” she adds.
Since most of these messages appear to have been sent from friends urging them to click on a Web address, everyone falls for it. The virus then hijacks the account, sending out chat messages to all of the user’s contacts and spreading itself further.
Never enter your email ID and password in any unauthenticated site, cautions cyber expert Mukesh Lathra. “If you receive such chat messages, close your chat window and clear your cache and cookies. And more importantly do not enter your username and password. If you have already entered it, change your Gmail password immediately. It isn’t possible to transfer actual viruses within a chat window or through a call but beware of any links that are sent to you. Don’t click on them as viruses and Trojans are often contained in many web pages,” he says. And do remember to have a trusted anti-virus software installed in your system. Keep it updated at all times, lest you have to face such tricky situations again,” he adds.
Ref: Deccan Chronicle : March 13th 2009
Never enter your email ID and password in any unauthenticated site, cautions cyber expert Mukesh Lathra. “If you receive such chat messages, close your chat window and clear your cache and cookies. And more importantly do not enter your username and password. If you have already entered it, change your Gmail password immediately. It isn’t possible to transfer actual viruses within a chat window or through a call but beware of any links that are sent to you. Don’t click on them as viruses and Trojans are often contained in many web pages,” he says. And do remember to have a trusted anti-virus software installed in your system. Keep it updated at all times, lest you have to face such tricky situations again,” he adds.
Ref: Deccan Chronicle : March 13th 2009
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