Attackers Add Curses to YouTube Comments

Hackers and malware authors mastered the art of using social networking and Web 2.0 applications for purposes of ill-refute some time ago, but as with any breed of cyber-attack, when they've found a solid avenue to market, the criminals continue to hammer the same methods years after they've been discovered as users remain well behind the security research community in adjusting their habits to account for the ploys. Over two years ago Harvard researcher Ben Edelmann unearthed the use of the comments section of YouTube by threatsters seeking to drive hordes of unsuspecting users to malware sites.

While they hadn't cracked the underpinnings of YouTube itself to deliver attacks to the masses, by posting eye-catching vids and then enticing viewers to continue through to their own sites in the comments section, they realized they could still tap into the massive viral value of the multimedia portal to forward their own efforts.

But despite the fact that Edelman and other experts were sounding the alarm to YouTube users to be on the lookout and watch where they follow links off of the site ages ago in Internet-time, the tactic is still heavily in use and currently attached to tons of posts hosted on the ubiquitous video site, researchers contend.