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September 10, 2008 5:57 PM PDT

Obama sex video? Hardly. It's spyware spreading via e-mail

by Elinor Mills
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Don't believe everything you read on the Internet: Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama isn't a terrorist...or a porn star.

A malicious spam e-mail is spreading that claims to have a link to a sex video of Obama but is instead spyware that steals sensitive data from the computer, security firm Sophos warned on Wednesday.

The subject line says "Obama sex video!!!" and the e-mail appears to come from "infonews@obama.com, Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant at Sophos, says on his blog.

Clicking on the link downloads an executable file that plays an amateur porn video, but Obama is not in it.

Meanwhile, behind the scenes a Trojan horse known as Mal/Hupig-D is installed. The Trojan targets Windows machines and steals passwords and bank account data, Cluley said.

Is it the work of the Republicans? Probably not; it has the trademark bad grammar and excessive punctuation of traditional phishing attempts, many of which originate outside English-speaking countries.

Elinor Mills covers Internet security and privacy. She joined CNET News in 2005 after working as a foreign correspondent for Reuters in Portugal and writing for The Industry Standard, the IDG News Service, and the Associated Press. E-mail Elinor.
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by Lerianis September 10, 2008 6:14 PM PDT
Who could be stupid enough to fall for this? Not me, in all honesty. I have fallen for Codec pack things containing spyware on web pages, but never one in an e-mail.
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by handyjohnnie September 10, 2008 8:56 PM PDT
Just how ill, are we Americans...to buy into this media tripe. I don't see black, white...male, female, lipstick or gloss. I am shuddering with terror, about how this election is going. Anyone, else? Wake up America, you do have a choice, be smart, think about it, talk with your peers, and get a shovel, and try and dig up the real issues, turn your t.v. off...for five minutes, and ponder...just how will the outcome of this election best suit me.
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by Magallanes September 11, 2008 5:52 AM PDT
And the worst is the election will decide the future of almost the entire world, not just because USA will still keep a hostile stance against the world but mainly because the stupid war on Iraq did rise (artificially) the gas price. I wanted to buy a suv but now im searching for a compact, at last the compact is more eco-friendly and (a little) cheap.
by n3td3v September 10, 2008 9:01 PM PDT
Its the work of Marcus Sachs: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FSUPTZVlkyU
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by imhodudes September 11, 2008 8:18 AM PDT
"it has the trademark bad grammar and excessive punctuation of traditional phishing attempts, many of which originate outside English-speaking countries."

There is no evidence of who created this email. But it would be brainlessly easy to imitate bad grammar.
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