hankyoreh

Several days ago, a 39-year-old man, who is only identified by his family name, Kim, searched the Internet at home for online pornography. After surfing, Kim decided to visit a blog he had found to watch the pornography because the site did not require payment.

Kim, after a simple download, was able to watch the porn via the blog, which was posted as user created video clips. Since then, however, Kim's personal computer has started running slowly, as his antivirus program is running overtime in order to cure malicious codes downloaded onto his computer. A toolbar has appeared on his computer screen, unsolicited, but Kim cannot delete it. Kim's computer is officially infected.

The cause is simple: malicious codes infected Kim's computer after he carelessly clicked a "yes" button on a popup that read, "Do you agree to download this 'viewing program' to see the video clip?"

He thought that the user created video clips were free of malicious codes. But he came to pay for his carelessness.

Park Si-jun, a research at Ahnlab Inc., an anti-virus computer program maker, said, "Recently, malicious codes are spreading via user created video clips posted on blog sites, as video-sharing Web sites are gaining popularity."

The problem is that there are no particular preventive measures. Park said, "Most UCCs could be watched without downloading an additional program. When a popup window appears and says a particular program should be installed to watch a video, Internet users should avoid doing so because the window may be a bait to spread malicious codes," Park said.



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