Paris Hilton's website hosts drive-by-download malware

Alex Zaharov-Reutt
Friday, 16 January 2009 06:34

Opinion and Analysis

Online criminals are continuing to target high profile websites by hacking them to host drive-by-download malware, with the latest belonging to well-known socialite Paris Hilton.

Paris Hilton is the latest celebrity to attract unwanted attention from cyber criminals busily hacking into websites so they host malware.

The news comes thanks to the UK’s Telegraph newspaper which warns web surfers not to visit the socialite’s site.

Anyone that visits the site is asked if they want to download a plug-in, and whether the user clicks “yes” or “cancel” the site then tries to download the “Trojan-Spy.Zbot.YETH” malware.

Clearly the Trojan will only affect Windows users without adequate Internet Security software, leaving Mac and Linux users unaffected, although similar “drive-by-download” malware affecting Mac OS X has been developed, and if Mac OS X can be attacked, a variant of Unix, Linux could also be similarly affected when online criminals take attacking Linux seriously.

The malware is of the classic information stealing type, designed for identity fraud purposes and targeted at discovering financial information, adding to the booming “underground economy”.

The growing threat of criminals targeting websites with drive-by download malware highlights the need for up-to-date Internet security software, as well as software such as “TrustDefender” which can protect users from having banking transactions snooped upon even if their Internet Security software fails to protect them from this Trojan.

We’re not going to link to Paris Hilton’s website in case its administrators haven’t yet fixed the problem, and we suggest you don’t visit it for the time being, if visiting Hilton’s site is something you’ve ever done or plan to do.