News 'Spider-Man: No Way Home' Pirates Hit by Crypto Malware

DemonicSky

Distinguished
Oct 25, 2014
22
2
18,525
I don't know a single person that would ever, EVER run a randomly found .exe file when downloading a movie. This headline might as well have said "Random viruses can occur if you download executables from unknown source".
 

USAFRet

Titan
Moderator
I don't know a single person that would ever, EVER run a randomly found .exe file when downloading a movie. This headline might as well have said "Random viruses can occur if you download executables from unknown source".
We see those people here every single day.

"I needed Foo.exe, because I need to make some funny cat memes."
"I found a link to download it"
"I clicked, and my antivirus said it was hazardous"
"I told my AV to ignore"
"I ran the Foo.exe"
"My system is now running slow, and my files seem to be 'encrypted'. What can I do?"

Every. Single. Day.
 
  • Like
Reactions: COLGeek

DemonicSky

Distinguished
Oct 25, 2014
22
2
18,525
Then I really feel sorry for you. I've worked in IT for the last 3 decades, and even where I work now people wouldn't be that dense. And this is a place where people share their passwords with colleagues because otherwise "they forget them", or create support tickets to ask us to verify mails (if they are spam or not), and even these people know not to run random exe files :|

Starting to see why scammers invest in 1000x USB drives then leave them around parks and playgrounds..
 

USAFRet

Titan
Moderator
Then I really feel sorry for you. I've worked in IT for the last 3 decades, and even where I work now people wouldn't be that dense. And this is a place where people share their passwords with colleagues because otherwise "they forget them", or create support tickets to ask us to verify mails (if they are spam or not), and even these people know not to run random exe files :|

Starting to see why scammers invest in 1000x USB drives then leave them around parks and playgrounds..
Don't feel sorry for "me".
This is just random users that find their way to Tom's.

Stroll through some recent threads in here...

Or this one:
 

DemonicSky

Distinguished
Oct 25, 2014
22
2
18,525
I thought you were referring to your own line of work. Tom's I get as it's been quoted to clueless users numerous times. Even when I worked at tech support for Microsoft, I would almost daily, mention it to users. (Yes every tech support love these forums).

While it's good they can find a resource like this forum, you'd think that at this stage of our digital society, running random .exe files would be long gone. But it still feels like a clickbait headline, as these any malware in a .exe isn't specific to a movie, and has been out for decades in all kinds of media. Even in 3.11 you had Netbus installed through Whack-a-mole.
 

peachpuff

Reputable
BANNED
Apr 6, 2021
690
733
5,760
I don't know a single person that would ever, EVER run a randomly found .exe file when downloading a movie. This headline might as well have said "Random viruses can occur if you download executables from unknown source".
Blame Microsoft for hiding the file extension by default. The file will look like spiderman.torrent rather than spiderman.torrent.exe in file explorer.
 
In all honesty I have absolutely 0 sympathy for these thieves in this circumstance.

A ticket to go see this movie at the local cinemas is a massive whipping $8. If you would rather steal something and hurt the people that spent their time and money on making it rather than paying just $8 for a ticket, you deserve this.

They are just getting what they deserve and I don't see an issue with this.
 
Adobe stuff is completely overpriced, and the fact you have to pay monthly to use it indefinitely is very expensive.

But, there are free or open source alternatives.

I wanted a video editing program but didn't want to pay anything. Just got the free version of davinci resolve. Sure it's lacking some features from the paid version, but it does all I need and was legitimately legally free.
 

USAFRet

Titan
Moderator
I DO link them to GIMP and paint.net.

As well as HitFilm Express and DaVinci Resolve.

However....
"Yes, but my friend said that photoshoip is the best, so...where's the free version?"
"You're useless! Never mind, I'll find it myself!"

2 days later.....
"Why did all my files change to cat.ransomCrypt?
 

USAFRet

Titan
Moderator
 
  • Like
Reactions: NightHawkRMX