The Erin Andrews video peep malware

How hackers helped slow the spread of video that violated the privacy of the sexy ESPN reporter

erin andrews
(Image credit: (Icon SMI/Corbis/Andy Altenburger))

Hackers aren't completely evil, said Matthew Hines in eWeek. By hiding malware in phony links to the Erin Andrews video peep clips, they discouraged legions of drooling Internet users from trying to download the illegal footage. The peephole footage—showing the lovely ESPN reporter naked in a hotel room—was a gross invasion of privacy, but a lot more people would have seen it if malware distributors hadn't scared them off.

"Anyone who searches for the video now is likely to get infected," said Alex Goldman in Internet News. Malware purveyors have set up infected websites offering links to the nude Erin Andrews video peep clips, and they appear legitimate—including "a skilled knockoff of CNN.com." Some of the sites, according to Internet security specialist Sophos, have installed the OSX/Jahlav-C Trojan horse on Macintosh computers, and several different viruses on Windows PCs, including Mal/EncPk-IF, a piece of malware, and Mal/FakeAV-AY, a rogue anti-virus system."

The amazing thing, said Bruce Arthur in Canada's National Post, is that the threat of infection with a bad computer virus hasn't stopped hordes of peeping Toms from trying to watch the Erin Andrews video peep clips (although many may have been foiled by spelling her name "Aaron Andrews"). The hunt is on for the culprit who shot the footage and posted it online, but everyone who watched the video is an accomplice in this "voyeuristic equivalent of rape."

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"Many online viewers don’t realize they are actually breaking the law," said Edecio Martinez in CBS News. Lisa Bloom, a CBS News legal analyst, said on "The Early Show" that downloading or watching the nude Erin Andrews video peep footage is illegal. "Its like buying or selling stolen property," Bloom said. "If you know you are buying something that was stolen... you could be liable criminally and civilly."

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