{"id":38485,"date":"2014-10-13T10:48:55","date_gmt":"2014-10-13T17:48:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.mcafee.com\/?p=38485"},"modified":"2025-08-07T21:26:38","modified_gmt":"2025-08-08T04:26:38","slug":"emma-watson-facebook-virus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mcafee.com\/blogs\/internet-security\/emma-watson-facebook-virus\/","title":{"rendered":"Emma Watson Video Scam: Hackers Use Celeb\u2019s Popularity to Unleash Viruses"},"content":{"rendered":"

Following the announcement of the 2014 Most Dangerous Celebrities<\/a>\u2122 earlier this month, our senses have been heightened to scams on the web involving Hollywood\u2019s most famous. Well, it seems our fascination with lifestyles of the rich and famous have led us to yet another attack utilizing well-known celebs to spread malicious software (referred to as malware<\/a>) across the web.<\/p>\n

Case in point: a newly leaked video, purporting to depict Emma Watson, is spreading across the social web and across machines. That choice of celebrity wasn\u2019t random. While Miss Watson wasn\u2019t directly involved with celebgate (a recent incident in which<\/span>\u00a0stolen nude celebrity photos<\/a>\u00a0and videos\u00a0were<\/span>\u00a0leaked across the Internet), she was a vocal critic of it. Watson\u2019s criticisms, and well-received U.N. speech<\/a>, may have instigated the Internet\u2019s cave dwellers. She was also our 2012 Most Dangerous Celebrity<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This scam utilizes Facebook to trick victims into clicking on a malicious link. That link claims to show a private video of Emma Watson. Sufficed to say, the link does not actually contain a video depicting Miss Watson, but instead leads to a malicious website loaded with Trojans<\/a> designed to steal your personal data and permanently change your browser settings.<\/p>\n

How does it work?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Once the link is clicked, the masked Trojan releases itself onto your browser, allowing hackers to control web-browsing settings on the user\u2019s behalf. This includes monitoring your permissions on Facebook, overseeing timeline posts and\u2014you guessed it\u2014posting comments with links riddled with malware. What\u2019s worse? The scammers monetize your Facebook activity by automatically following and liking fan pages.<\/p>\n

As with many social engineering<\/a> scams, which manipulate users into taking action or giving up information, users infected with the malware end up marketing for the hackers behind the hoax\u2014in this case, through automatic Facebook comments. Once the video has been clicked, victims will (unbeknownst to them) post comments containing the same malicious link and further perpetuate the scam. Site visitors are then prompted with an error message, alerting them to update their Flash Player in order to view the leaked video.<\/p>\n

Word to the wise<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The cybercriminals behind this stunt are flaunting the \u2018Anonymous\u2019 ethos\u2014a popular online group which made a sport of attacking bank, government and various websites. The persons behind this attack may identify with the group (though they may not necessarily be a part of it) and are using that dark-web Internet credibility to \u201cleak\u201d private celebrity videos and trick users into making that fatal click.<\/p>\n

How do I protect myself?<\/strong><\/h2>\n