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Hacked Alicia Keys MySpace Page Could Leave You With a Virus



MySpace is a minefield. Time magazine even put the social-networking site on its list of 'Five Web Sites to Avoid.' Even we here at Switched have posted endless coverage of the sexual predators, spammers, and hackers that have made the MySpace risky at times for anybody not browsing with a sandboxed Firefox browser.

Now, the hackers have managed to expand their attacks beyond the usual faux profiles or hijacks of your friends pages. They're starting to hit the MySpace pages of celeb musicians such as Alicia Keys.

The hack is actually quite sophisticated and involves multiple avenues of infection. Just visiting Keys' page prompts spyware to attempt to install itself on your PC.

If that fails, the page will then ask you to install a codec to allow you to view a video. The codec is fake and if you accept the installation, you will get instant spyware infection! If that fails, the entire background image of the page is a link. Miss any of the legitimate links on the page and you'll be taken to a Web site registered by a Chinese company Xiamen Hua Shang Sheng Shi Network Co. Ltd. That Web site also tries to install malicious code on your computer.

It's a big mess!

Security experts at Exploit Prevention Labs, a company that tracks pages containing malicious code, spotted the hack when Keys' s MySpace page was flagged by users of the company's LinkScanner system.

Keys's page has been confirmed as being cleaned by MySpace and LinkScanner.com, but all that could change in a matter of days.

From PC World

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