[ISN] Hackers Lurking in Obama's Web Site

From: InfoSec News <alerts_at_private>
Date: Tue, 27 Jan 2009 01:33:41 -0600 (CST)
http://www.pcworld.com/article/158343/hackers_lurking_in_obamas_web_site.html

By Robert McMillan
IDG News Service
Jan 26, 2009

U.S. President Barack Obama ran a successful Web 2.0 campaign last year. 
Now, as president, he's got to deal with a very Web 2.0 problem: hackers 
abusing the social-networking features of his Web site.

Hackers have registered bogus accounts on Obama's online community, 
my.barackobama.com, where they are posting images designed to set off a 
chain of events that lead to malicious Trojan horse programs. These 
programs are stepping stones used by hackers to download more and more 
malware onto a victim's computer.

The problem on Obama's Web site is not unique. Hackers and the operators 
of popular Web sites are often caught in a cat and mouse game, with the 
bad guys constantly finding a new way of uploading malicious programs 
just as soon as one avenue of attack is closed. Social-networking sites 
want to give their users as many cool ways of enhancing their own Web 
pages as possible -- my.barackobama.com lets users create their own 
blogs -- while at the same time reining in any misuse.

"The U.S. Presidential campaign has shown the world how governments can 
leverage Web 2.0," Websense wrote on a company blog outlining the issue 
Monday. "However, this ... is yet another opportunity to spread more 
malicious code."

[...]


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Received on Mon Jan 26 2009 - 23:33:41 PST

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