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iTunes IM worm drops adware and spyware on your machine

By Derek Sooman

On July 21, 2005, 7:15 AM

A new version of the Opanki worm is masquerading as Apple Computer's iTunes application; the instant messaging worm drops adware on infected Windows PCs and spreads using America Online's AOL Instant Messenger. The worm arrives in a message with the text: "This picture never gets old" and includes a link to a file that when downloaded is installed as "ITUNES.EXE". We do NOT recommend allowing this to happen. If you do, the worm will open a backdoor on your PC and will install four adware applications. This trend of spyware and adware delivering worms is unfortunately increasing.

"We are seeing more worms and viruses that are dropping spyware and adware," Bruce Hughes, a senior antivirus researcher at Trend Micro said. "The virus writers get money for every install."

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  1. July 21, 2005 10:01 AM
    Phantasm66 said:
    [quote]"The virus writers get money for every install."[/quote]This should be illegal, if it is not already. The only way we will stop this is perhaps to boycott all companies that use these kinds of tactics to advertise.
    Reply

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