Earlier First Lady Becomes An Aim Of Malware Sting

By Author: Isaiah Henry
Total Articles: 220
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Surrounded by computer experts and a detail of Secret Service Men, even the presidential candidate was not immune to a malware scam. Millions of the former First Lady�s supporters and constituents received an email entitled �Hillary Clinton Full Video!!� The email did not contain a video of Mrs. Clinton; it had absolutely nothing to do with her in fact. Instead, the email contained an intrusive, annoying and sometimes dangerous malware scam.

Beginning in February, 2008, a widely-distributed email found its way around the globe. The particular email that put millions of computers at risk was entitled �Hillary Clinton Full Video�. In recent history, there has never been a campaign or election that garnered the attention this year�s presidential race has. Due in large part to the heightened interest in this race, many people opened the email hoping to learn more about the presidential candidate. There were destined to be disappointed when they opened the email and received malicious malware instead.

If you are not familiar with the term �malware�, don�t ...
... feel bad, you have plenty of company. Many frequent computer users incorrectly describe it as �a computer virus�. Even the media is confused and uses the terms interchangeably. That is incorrect because not all malware come in the form of viruses.

Let�s trace the steps of the Hillary Clinton �Video� email to see how malware scams can be spread. Finding the email in their inboxes, most people eagerly opened it without suspicion of any kind. They had no reason to be suspicious; after all, they believed it came from Hillary Clinton and appeared to be a valid email. That�s the problem; malware operates covertly and intrudes upon computers without the owner�s knowledge or consent.

Once opened, the email contained a link to a page set up to look like a Google search page. It was not affiliated with Google in any way; instead, it was the way malware was able to install itself onto the operating systems. Once in place, the malware scam is free to install spyware, adware, viruses, worms and rootkits. Some viruses are so dangerous they can cause moderate to severe damage to your computer.

How can you protect your computer from a potentially dangerous malware scam? There may be no way currently that you can absolutely protect your operating system, 100% of the time. However, there are things you can do to minimize your risks. Even though internet security software (like the popular Norton Internet Security and Spyware Doctor) doesn�t catch all malware; often, they block most of it.

Even Norton and other sophisticated internet security systems cannot guarantee absolute protection. The closest you can come to fool-proof protection is to open emails only from people/addresses with which you are completely familiar and comfortable.