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Steve, Jobs, passing, and, now, comes, the, spam, paradeMore From
Steve Jobs' passing - and now comes the spam parade
David Heath
Monday, 10 October 2011 12:11
The scum of the Internet have very little respect for anything -natural disasters, significant milestones even the passing of important people are all grist to the mill of the spammers and malware merchants; so it is with the death of Steve Jobs.
With that in mind, iTWire asked a couple of Australia's leading security commenters for their thoughts on this malaise.
Lloyd Borrett, AVG's local Security Evangelist noted that "cyber crooks are rapidly evolving;" and when asked specifically about the possibility of Jobs-focussed malware said, "It will happen, it's only a matter of time."
Although AVG tries very hard to stay abreast of the crooks and their activities, Borrett added that, "there's only so much we can do with the software," exhorting users to be both vigilant and wary.
By the time iTWire received a response from Paul Ducklin, Sophos' Head of Technology, Asia Pacific, the malware had already started. Ducklin pointed to a "survey scam" already circulating on Twitter and Facebook offering a free iPad for people who complete an online survey.
The web page claims, "In memory of Steve, a company is giving out 50 iPads. RIP Steve Jobs."
"My simple, golden rule," said Ducklin, "is this: THERE IS NO FREE IPAD. Sure, you may eventually meet someone who won an iPad somewhere. But for every one of them, you'll meet millions who were bait-and-switched on Facebook, Twitter, or similar. The odds are so stacked, it's safer and easier to assume they are infinitely against you. So repeat after me. THERE IS NO FREE IPAD."
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