Some sites or Peer 2 Peer (P2P) sites are spreading Obama and McCain malware to its users.
Obama and McCain, some of the hottest topics of today along with the government Bailout. What better way to spread malware than to include it in P2P video downloads whose file names use Obama and McCain?
Security researchers have discovered that recent downloads from P2P sites that were thought to be John McCain and Barack Obama campaign videos, contained malware. Due to the hype and popularity of recent presidential race campaigns and debates that have taken place, hackers are taking advantage of it to spread a large amount of malware through P2P downloads.
Computer users have always been plagued with malware being associated with P2P networks and even included in downloaded files from other sources such in the case of CNN.com malspam messages. In the case of Obama and McCain videos downloaded via P2P sites, in one instance it was found that a there was a common malware variant found within zip files titled "Democratic Convention 2008 - Barack Obama Acceptance Speech.zip". The malware variant W32/Zipwire was found many times in similarly named zip files downloaded through P2P sites. This type of infection is typical in the world of Trojans such as Zlob in that it installs a rogue antivirus program on the infected machine.
Lets face it, hackers are into popular stuff just like anyone else because it works to spread their malware to thousands of computer users around the world over the internet. You can avoid getting malware infections by simply not downloading items but who really wants to cease downloading popular videos like an Obama or McCain speech? The trick is, doing some investigating when you choose a source to download such a video or zip file. Zip files can commonly contain malware or other harmful files all contained in a "zipped" package. Also, using the latest antivirus or antispyware program is a great line of defense if you cannot help your desire for downloading from P2P networks.
Have you viewed or downloaded any presidential election video lately? Did you get infected with malware due to the download of a P2P site zip or video file that you thought was related to McCain or Obama?