December 20, 2006

MySpace HELL: Helping a reader of StopScum turns into a Saturday spent in a Virus/Trojan and pop up Hell

Judy called me and wondered what to do. She was sitting at her "kids" computer which is also used by the entire family and MySpace was delivering Trojans/Viruses which Norton AV was catching and deleting. Compounding this weekend attack were full page pops with Advertising and no easy way to close them and a phony Flash security notice to download same. The only other open application was MySpace. I walked her through the appropriate procedures and promised her that I would also take a look.

My Saturday Trip to Hell via MySpace

Two minutes later I found myself in MySpace Hell. The exact same thing was happening to my machine as Judy reported. Norton AV caught and eliminated "Trojan.ByteVerify" and "Trojan.Download.Trojan". Sorry, I didn't have the inclination to take a screen grab of the phony Flash security notice and download prompt, the full page POP with no easy way to close same, and an entire series of Mouse Trapping procedures. Fortunately, I did an Alt Tab until I ran notepad and then killed all the process via the Windows Task Manager. Given this occurrence, I decided to take a look at a few things about MySpace and I should also warn you, NOT to try this. Here are a few issues which MySpace should immediately correct:

1. Run a search for "Porn" on the MySpace teen pages. I guarantee you that if you click on a few of the "Kids" pages, your system will be attacked if the slimmy advertising is running on the site which delivers the junk I noted above. In any event, Porn is easy to find. Please MySpace, spare me the PR dribble and or double talk. Filter and eliminate some key words on the members pages so others can't find them. This is childs play from a technical perspective. Your filter automatically STOPS the use of certain words and also eliminates them in current keyword descriptions. ELIMINATE ALL PORN from MySpace. Automate as much of this procedure as you can and hire more staff to eliminate Porn and ban these Porn purveyors for life.

2. MySpace, your not auditing your Advertisers creatives. It appears your giving them access to their creative stream so they insert banners which deliver Trojans and full page pops/mouse trapping which have no easy way to close. I'm darn sure that your advertisers were the source of my Saturday Hell. Think carefully, YOUR responsible. Hello? Get a clue? This normally spikes on a weekend when the slime bags understand that no one is watching. Also, your advertisers can even "broker" their slot on your site to other players whom you know nothing about. Get serious and police your advertisers 24/7/365.

3. Your SignUp page needs a serious transfusion and exhibit's a blatant and self serving disregard for privacy and security. Click here to open my screen capture in a new window. What's the problem? Your asking for confidential information but NOT using a "cert" as in "https". You have already prechecked the "Allow others to see when it's my birthday" That's an open invitation for ID Theft criminals, porn kings, child abusers, and other types of slime bags. Uncheck this option immediately.

4. Make it VERY EASY for your teen members and site visitors to report abuse to you and of course, act on these reports in a timely manner. NONE of your member pages have a hard coded "Report Abuse" link, located above the fold, on them. Get serious today and fix this.

Posted by Steve_S

December 18, 2006

MySpace Teen Abuse WARNINGS: A magnet for Spyware slime bags and every kind of abuse you could ever imagine.

Your teen kids use MySpace. Over 70 million "kids" use MySpace. Over 26 million uniques per day hit this site. It's the largest magnet in the world for every kind of teen abuse you could imagine including but not limited to Spyware, identity theft, spam, and porn of all flavors. It's going to get even worse so take careful notes when you read this entry.

Mom, Dad and kids, read this!

Parents, if your kids use MySpace and or any social networking site, you must become involved with them. If your not willing to follow a few simple steps, I guarantee you that your kids will be abused so either do what I suggest or unplug the Net. Try this:

1. Engage your kids. Make it a family affair and ask them where they surf. Do it together and talk about the Net at dinner. WARN your kids and continue to monitor their actions in a non threatening manner. Surf together and share sites to bring the family closer together.

2. Profiles and all data on MySpace should NEVER use real names, DOB, phone numbers, and addresses. Use a screen name and don't post any personal data.

3. Don't click on any strange links or even read any strange messages from anyone, unless they are from a trusted friend.

4. Every machine in your home and or workplace which uses the Internet must have the following properly installed and running:

- Anti Virus Software with current profiles

- Anti Spyware Software with current profiles

- Anti Spam software with current profiles

- A Firewall with current patches/updates. I prefer a hardware solutions but software is better than nothing.

- Run the "Windows Update" on a regular basis

5. Share these tips with your friends and neighbors.

The latest MySpace abuse

Maybe you think I'm kidding or over reacting. You better read this tale of Spyware. The latest scam by the Spyware slime bags involves a software pitch which permit MySpace users to see who is viewing their profile pages. It's spreading like wild fire via a MySpace bulletin which is really SPAM and asks the kids to visit www.myfriendspy.com. Naturally, the promise of this software is false but you landed on the page and are hit with prompts to install Zango. The check box (over 18) is already checked and you can't read the TOS/EULA for Zango because the box/container is so small. You can't even copy the text to Notepad to read it. Yea its FREE but guess what, install Zango and you enter Spyware hell: multiple pops and so much advertising that your machine becomes way to slow to use and uninstalling it will definitely be another trip to Hell.

The future is grim

The criminals will continue to exploit your kids via MySpace and every other major Social Networking site. It's going to get even worse until the owners of these sites SUE the abusers, figure out a legal way to try and send them to JAIL, and keep doing this until these abuses diminish.

If you run a business and your employees have Net access, you better formalize your MySpace policy and my thoughts are rather simple to understand, your using my Computer at work, even if it's your own time so I'm going to ban/block these sites and if I catch you on them, your toast and that means termination.

Posted by Steve_S