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YouTube and other web sites have millions of videos. So many that very few are found by the public in their searches. Yet frequently one “goes viral” and takes off. Everyone wants to see it, but you need to be careful. Hackers will use your interest in that dancing baby or piano playing cat to infect you with malware!
Criminal hackers by definition have no scruples, so they are more than willing to exploit a charitable fund raising activity such as the “Ice Bucket Challenge” which has been raising a large amount of money towards a cure for ALS.
This activity involves pouring a bucket of ice water onto someone’s head to create an awareness and concern about the decease called Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis. This challenge started spreading like wildfire on social media and went viral during July–August 2014.
Cybercriminals are utilizing the Ice Bucket Challenge-themed scams. Typically, the send spam emails inviting recipients to view a fake ice bucket video of someone engaged in icing themselves, but if you click on the video you get infected with malware.
What Can I Do?
Here are some tips to avoid being a victim of these malicious acts:
- Check on the source before you choose to read an article on the latest news topics or if you want to donate to a non-profit organization. The news source website through which you are reading an article, should be a reputable one, preferably an organization website, also type in the website address onto the address bar directly
- Do not access a locked content when it claims for an acknowledgement by clicking Ok or Yes on a permission box
- Always exercise awareness and have a check while reading or receiving any suspicious article on true stories
- Ensure a proper installation of an antivirus for Windows 8 (software) on your computer, that has updated virus definitions, one such product is Comodo Antivirus
- Exercise Regular operating system updates on your computer
Of course, you have little worry about if you use Comodo Antivirus. With its Default Deny architecture and autosanboxing, any malware you download will be deleted or can only run in a safer, secure area known as the sandbox.
