Presidential Malware Predictions
During my trip to Interop earlier this week, I was discussing with a number of colleagues how unimaginative malware authors seem to be. No national holiday seems to go past without some form of greeting from the malware authors. Then there’s the stream of ‘Britney‘ related malware.
Other than the ongoing financial crisis and credit crunch, the big news item for the next few months is of course the US Presidential elections. Combine that with the malware authors favourite lure of pornography and attention grabbing headlines and it doesn’t take much imagination to predict what is going to be heading our way soon. We’ve already seen malware proporting to be pornographic videos of Barack Obama, what will be next?
So here are my predictions, together with the ‘odds’ of them appearing.
| Malware Lure | odds |
|---|---|
| Sarah Palin sex video | Evens |
| Sarah Palins daughter sex video | 2/1 |
| Barack and Michelle Obama home sex video | 5/1 |
| John McCain Heart attack | 10/1 |
| Joe Biden sex video | 20/1 |
| John McCain sex video | 50/1 |
| John McCain and Sarah Palin sex video | 50/1 |
My attempts obviously required very little creativity, I’m sure you can come up with some better suggestions. So here’s your chance, send us with your own predictions of attention grabbing ‘headlines’ that might be used by malware authors. The best will be chosen by an expert panel and receive a prize. I had considered offering a prize for any malware that ‘actually used’ your headline, but thought that would be tempting fate.
Send your suggestions to sophosblog@sophos.com
Closing date is 6th October
Posted on September 19th, 2008 by Mark Harris, VP of SophosLabsFiled under: General
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