Symantec Blogs: Security ResponseSyndicate content

Umesh Wanve | September 3rd, 2008
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We have seen in recent times that malicious binaries are spreading through social engineering attack vectors like spam emails, phishing, and social networking sites. This time we have found that attackers have begun targeting free online service sites and our example is based on Google Notebook, although these attacks are not unique to this site. Attackers have started to use Google Notebook as a new social engineering attack vector to spread misleading applications. Misleading applications attempt to convince the user that he or she must remove potentially unwanted programs or security risks (usually nonexistent or fake) from the computer.

Google Notebook is a free online service that provides a way to save and share information in a single location. This free service offers a feature to save search results, notes, or images online and allow users to share these artifacts with others. Users can create notes with headings and within each note they can add more content,...