Online Video Virus Warning

[sultan_emerr]

Watch out for any video file that suggests you need a codec. Or any suggestions that you should download a codec pack:

http://www.updatexp.com:80/online-video-virus.html

"The issue these criminals are exploiting is the myriad of formats the online video can come in. So they rely on the end user being ignorant or confused.

You see when you make a video the file size is too large to be used on the Internet so it has to be "compressed" into a smaller size. Then when the file is played back on your computer it is then "uncompressed" when viewed.

To do this compression/uncompressing you will use something called a CODEC.

What the criminals are now trying to do is to fool you believing you have to download a new CODEC onto your computer in order to watch the video.

The thing is if you have the main media players (current versions) installed on your computer then they should have installed enough of the most popular CODECS on your computer so that the need to install anymore is remote."

[Bubba Bob]

Good to know, thanks Sultan

[sultan_emerr]

Good to know, thanks Sultan

Hi Bubba Bob,

You're welcome, my friend.

[blim]

Daughter plays at YouTube, thank you so much, Sultan, I'll get this info to her (NOW let's hope she remembers! )

Liz

[bar5]

Thanks sultan for the info.

Barb

[thesidekickcat]

Thanks so much for the warning Sultan!!!

Pat

God bless everyone

[Dragon]

I was looking for one of these and found it. Luckily I denied any outgoing service connections from it in my firewall. Thank you kpf

I still have the infected file on my machine, although it is in quarantine by Anti-Vir, my antivirus program.

this is a nasty little bugger I found, even doing a system restore doesn't get rid of it all. It hooks itself into other programs to try and stay alive. I'm compiling a list of those files soon, after I find them all, so we know what all they are affecting.

if you get told you need a codec pack called TrueCodec, don't install it, this is the one I'm working with now.

[hitest]

Whoa, thanks for the tip, sultan!! My 12 year old daughter likes Youtube a lot; I just passed the warning on to her.:-)

[swordofdestiny]

IIRC, YouTube has a few specific codecs required. As long as it's on YouTube, it SHOULD not saying it is, but it should be safe. Because in this case I think their flash player is acting as a codec to decompress it (I think). Thing is, with these fake codecs, you cannot encode the video. It's just a virus. So, technically I think YouTube will be immune from it. I don't think YouTube requires any other downloads other than flash. I like YouTube for the massive amount of anime that is on it (Yes I'm an anime freak). So just don't follow any links off of YouTube to videos that may ask for a codec. I think I've seen it somewhere (I was trying to find a subbed version of a popular anime that hasn't been released here). The sites use an image of what looks like a flash video player with a black background where video would be displayed with the message, "You need a new codec to play this video, click here to download it." If you've noticed, I think now adays Flash has to be clicked on (in IE) to activate, so if you don't have to click on it to activate it, it's not a flash and IS NOT a video player. Only other kind of media I can see this happening is in pr0n. So just keep yer minds outta teh gutter. Okay?