Man, I haven't been in YouTube for a while. Maybe they have new videos that will entertain me. I am really in the mood to watch something interesting. What's this? This video seems interesting. I'll just click on it and...what the hell! Spyware is being installed. Oh no! That's right, be careful about opening video files because viruses or spywares can be automatically installed in your computer. This is exactly what the article within slashdot is about.
According to the article, there is a program that "silently installs spyware when a video file is opened". I know this is true because I've been a victim of this tragedy. I tried viewing a video in Metacafe (a website dedicated to online videos). When I clicked on the link, my computer automatically installed a spyware. In fact, the name of the spyware was WinAntiSpyware. My computer was infected so I had to completely reformat my whole computer. It sucked because I had to backup many of my files.
Furthermore, the article mentions that the case for video related hacking have been few so far. However, I think hacking through online videos will increase over time. For example, hackers can attack YouTube, the website with the largest collection of online videos. In fact, hackers are already on the move because "attackers have also tried to spread fake video links via postings on YouTube". In other words, be careful because attackers are going after sites that are popular. In addition, YouTube isn't the only new target of hackers. Blogs and wikis are slowly becoming new targets for hackers. I am not surprised because hackers are not only attacking online video websites but also sites with potential for having online videos.
What's the lesson here? Be careful opening online videos because hackers may have installed viruses in them. So the next time you're curious about opening an "interesting" link in YouTube or any other online video websites, watch out because a virus could infect your whole computer!
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