In a way, you have to admire scammers – they can be so damn inventive. The latest incident of hacking seems to show a remarkable degree of inventiveness, anyway.
It hits both Windows and Mac users of the Firefox browser, according to the BBC. When you copy some information, the attack inserts a hard-to-delete link. Follow it and you find yourself at a site selling fake security software.
How does it work? It manages to exploit Adobe Flash files so they constantly flush other text from the clipboard and insert the link. Those who’ve been infected, writing in forums, have found that either stopping the Firefox process or rebooting have proved the only solutions to the problem.
Mikko Hypponen, chief research officer at security firm F-Secure, said:
"It’s an interesting attack, but doesn’t seem to be very widespread at the moment. I don’t remember seeing this before."
"It is a pretty clever technique. Our work would be so much easier if our enemy would be stupid."
Editors' Recommendations
- I tried the trendy new Arc browser — and this one feature blew my mind
- Microsoft confirms recent service outages were DDoS attacks
- No, 1Password wasn’t hacked – here’s what really happened
- Exploding USB drive injures journalist in terror attack
- Firefox just got a great new way to protect your privacy
