Websites Programmed By Open Source Software Attacked By Malware
29. July 2011
The iframe diagram. (Photo: ccheever.com)
In the not so distant past, you needed a large capital reserve along with a whole army of computer experts to set up even a mediocre website, but now thanks to the wonders of open source software technology, anyone can create a blog or a e-commerce website, without the need of spending a lot of money or technological know how. But unfortunately, even the most beautiful rose has its thorns, as using open source software can open you to a whole new world of terror. According to the security vendor firm, Armorize, Oscommerce, an open source software provider for e-commerce sites, had more than 90k+ pages compromised due to a massive malware attack since the last few days.
The iframe technique is a programming method where a webpage will be loaded inside another webpage, from a distinct server. According to Armorize, the hackers used this iframe method to launch the malware onto the e-commerce sites as this would make the malware virtually untraceable. According to Wayne Huang, who is the chief information officer for the company, these attacks were suspected to be originated from distant Ukrainian servers and the panic it caused among oscommerce users, was a scene reminiscent of a similar attack, which occurred three years ago in 2008. Huang felt that these malware planters and hackers usually strike when they find a programming flaw in a newly released software. They then proceed to riddle the flaw with their malware in order to infect any computer that downloads it.
Even though no serious damage has been done since the past couple of days, it shows shocking news on how hackers are getting more and more sophisticated in their attacks. As if groups like Lulzsec or Anonymous were not enough, the computer industry may be dealing with with a whole new group of computer hackers here, although nothing has been proved so far and the investigations are still in progress. So as a lesson, do not download open source software programs from any suspicious third party sources.
(rockefellernews/yk)
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