Blogs being used for scams

Employee internet management solutions company Websense has warned that blogs are increasingly being exploited as a means to distribute malicious code and keylogging software. Websense’s Security Lab has discovered hundreds of instances of blogs involved in the storage and delivery of harmful code. The revelations follow reports in February of malicious code being hosted on Google’s Blogger/ Blogspot service.

According to Websense, Blogs can be attractive vehicles for hackers for several reasons – blogs offer large amounts of free storage, they do not require any identity authentication to post information, and most blog hosting facilities do not provide antivirus protection for posted files.

In some cases, the culprits create a blog on a legitimate host site, post viral code or keylogging software to the page, and attract traffic to the toxic blog by sending a link through spam email or instant messaging (IM) to a large number of recipients. In other cases, the blog can be used as a storage mechanism which keeps malicious code that can be accessed by a Trojan horse that has already been hidden on the user’€™s computer.

“These aren’€™t the kind of blog websites that someone would stumble upon and infect their machine accidentally. The success of these attacks relies upon a certain level of social engineering to persuade the individual to click on the link,’€? said Dan Hubbard, senior director of security and technology research for Websense. ‘€œIn addition, the blogs are being utilized as the first step of a multi-layered attack that could also involve a spoofed email, Trojan horse, or a keylogger.”

(via media release)