Cyber Security Alert - Fake Installers
- By Grey McKenzie
- Published Tuesday 5th 2008
- Cyber Security Tips , Cyber Security Alert
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Rating:
Grey McKenzie
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Cyber security watchdog Grey McKenzie is one of the nation's leading Internet security experts.
Some of his clients include members of the Department of Homeland Security, State Department, Department of Defense & the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
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Fraudulent Adobe Flash Player Installer Conatains Malware WORM
It is massively important NEVER to download software from anywhere except the software authors website. Be sure when you install, their is a digital certificate that is validated by Windows when you install ANY software.
Below is from Adobe and a very good reason to pay attention when downloading & installing any software product.
Verifying Installers
We have seen coverage from the security community of a worm on popular social networking sites that is using social engineering lures to get users to install a piece of malware.
According to the reports, the worm posts comments on these sites that include links to a fake site.
If the link is followed, users are told they need to update their Flash Player.
The installer, posted on a malicious site, of course installs malware instead of Flash Player.
We’d like to take this opportunity to reiterate the importance of validating installers and updates before installing them.
First off, do not download Flash Player from a site other than adobe.com – you can find the link for downloading Flash Player here.
This goes for any piece of software (Reader, Windows Media Player, Quicktime, etc.) – if you get a notice to update, it’s not a bad idea to go directly to the site of the software vendor and download the update directly from the source.
If the download is from an unfamiliar URL or an IP address, you should be suspicious.
Second, all Adobe software for Windows is signed with a digital certificate that is validated by Windows when you install our software.
The Publisher will always be ‘Adobe Systems, Incorporated’, and you can verify this when you double-click the installer, or by right-clicking on the installer, selecting ‘Properties’, and going to the ‘Digital Signatures’ tab.
For Flash Player in particular, you can always go to this page to verify what version of Flash Player you have installed, and what the current version of Flash Player is for your Operating System. The current Flash Player version is 9.0.124.0.
This posting is provided “AS IS” with no warranties and confers no rights
Below is from Adobe and a very good reason to pay attention when downloading & installing any software product.
Verifying Installers
We have seen coverage from the security community of a worm on popular social networking sites that is using social engineering lures to get users to install a piece of malware.
According to the reports, the worm posts comments on these sites that include links to a fake site.
If the link is followed, users are told they need to update their Flash Player.
The installer, posted on a malicious site, of course installs malware instead of Flash Player.
We’d like to take this opportunity to reiterate the importance of validating installers and updates before installing them.
First off, do not download Flash Player from a site other than adobe.com – you can find the link for downloading Flash Player here.
This goes for any piece of software (Reader, Windows Media Player, Quicktime, etc.) – if you get a notice to update, it’s not a bad idea to go directly to the site of the software vendor and download the update directly from the source.
If the download is from an unfamiliar URL or an IP address, you should be suspicious.
Second, all Adobe software for Windows is signed with a digital certificate that is validated by Windows when you install our software.
The Publisher will always be ‘Adobe Systems, Incorporated’, and you can verify this when you double-click the installer, or by right-clicking on the installer, selecting ‘Properties’, and going to the ‘Digital Signatures’ tab.
For Flash Player in particular, you can always go to this page to verify what version of Flash Player you have installed, and what the current version of Flash Player is for your Operating System. The current Flash Player version is 9.0.124.0.
This posting is provided “AS IS” with no warranties and confers no rights
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