Erin Andrews Illegal Video Infected with Malware

Although the Erin Andrew’s peephole video has been removed from well known sites such as YouTube, users are still searching the Internet for the illegal video taken by a peeping Tom of Erin Andrews nude in her hotel room.

“There are lots more sites out there pretending to host the Erin Andrews peephole video, but really hosting malicious software,” said Graham Cluley of anti-virus software maker Sophos on a company blog.

“Hackers have created Web pages claiming to contain the notorious … video in their attempt to infect Mac and Windows computers,” he wrote.

“And — surprise, surprise — if you visit those Web pages you could be putting the security of your computer at real risk.”

Users, he said, may see a message that says something like, “Your popup blocker has blocked access to the Video Player. To view your video, please launch the Live Video Player below.”

Nate Solberg, of Nordic PC, said it’s when users click on such links that a virus can be unleashed.

“A Trojan horse is the method of delivery. You think you’re downloading something useful, but it turns out to have a surprise,” he said. “The payload can be pretty much anything. Most popular these days are botnets, which can take control of your machine and use it for denial-of-service attacks against other Web sites, or to house pornography or distribute files illegally.”

If users are asked to click on a link to download or update a video player in order to see photos or a video, Solberg suggests they instead go to the site of the video player company to get the link from the company itself “to make sure you’re getting the real thing.

“If you do that, then go back to download a video and it still says you don’t have the latest version, you know there’s something fishy going on,” he said.

Erin’s attorney said, “Although the perpetrator or perpetrators of this criminal act have not yet been identified, when they are identified she intends to bring both civil and criminal charges against them and against anyone who has published the material.”