Sunday, June 15, 2014

Would people really install unknown software on their PCs, just for a few cents (or a bit more)?

Today I read an interesting article on Engadget. Although most of their works I ignore these days (I'd rather read from TheNextWeb or The Verge), this article seemed interesting.

Basically, it discusses exactly what is in this post's title. While hackers are out there building botnets off of zombie/infected PCs, it turns out infecting people with malware is actually easier in some scenarios. Some people would actually accept payment for installing software, regardless if their OS flags it as malicious/risky etc.

 I'm sorry, but when I finished reading this I got a little enraged. Can PC users seriously get this desperate and/or be that stupid?

I spend some of my spare time working on PCs, from taking them apart and cleaning them out, all the way from disinfecting PCs and reinstalling operating systems. I sometimes do this for free, because I know otherwise people wouldn't care and their PC would be nothing more then a tool for a hacker. When I see stories like this, I just want to throw my hat on the ground and facepalm (or better yet, a do a deskpalm/facedesk).

I pray that people eventually become more educated about lucrative traps like this. While your payout is small, the hacker gets more out of the deal then you ever will. There's also a such thing as getting a job, instead of trying to use cheap tactics like this to earn money.