Homer Simpson and the Kimya Botnet

An anonymous reader writes "As all hardcore Simpsons fans know, [e-mail] was revealed to be Homer Simpsons' email address in one particular episode, registered by one of the shows writers, who would reply to fans as Homer himself. After a flood of messages, 'Homer' signed off — seemingly forever. Well in the last few days, security company Facetime Communications reports that anyone who had Homer on their AIM buddy list would have noticed his sudden reappearance. Unfortunately for all, he appears to have been hacked and pushing malware links which deposit those unlucky enough to run the file into a Turkish Botnet. The message claims the file is a 'web exclusive' episode of the TV show — an interesting way of targeting a specific group of fans who would assume Homers return would only coincide with something special like (say) a TV episode just for them. What I want to know is, is Homer smart enough to run an AV scan?"

Opening files

[Wowsers]

Opening unknown files could get you hacked. Doh!

Obligiatory Homer Quote

[charliebear]

They have the Internet on computers now?

I'm not impressed easily.

[MRe_nl]

Wow! A Turkish botnet!

Re:

[Bozzio]

"Wow! A blue car!"

One of my favourites!!

Re:

[Yvan256]

Does it have speed holes?

Re:

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Re:

[hvm2hvm]

Mhmmmm, turkey... Mhmmm, botnet..

Re:

[oodaloop]

The internet? Is that thing still around?

Senator Ted Stevens Responds

[david.peace]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q6pyzkaYD7A [youtube.com]

All TV characters should have e-mail addresses

[Simonetta]

All TV characters should have e-mail addresses. It's a no-brainer. It makes it possible for the creators of the characters to know exactly what their fans are like and, more importantly, what the fans want the character to be like.

It keeps the character alive after the TV show expires.

Personally I believe that figures in great paintings should have websites. Who wouldn't want to write to Simonetta Vespucci [nga.gov] for advice on romance? The responders should be older employees who ha

Re:

[maxume]

There was more to those brownies than you thought.

Re:All TV characters should have e-mail addresses

[magarity]

All TV characters should have e-mail addresses. It's a no-brainer
 
Yeah, but only Homer Simpson should have an @aol.com address.

Nelson Muntz's response

[evolvearth]

Haw haw!

Running AIM and clicking on random executables?

[Anonymous Coward]

Sounds more like Ralph.

Re:

[Yvan256]

Sounds more like Mayor West to me.... oops, wrong show.

Re:

[AC-x]

A link coming from (what used to be) an official simpsons address is hardly random, don't think you can blame that many people for clicking on the link (running without a virus checker tho... especially as free ones like anti-vir are perfectly good!)

Ineteresting tactic

[notnAP]

Anyone in the printing or marketing industries is familiar with the concept of Variable Data Printing (aka One-to-One Marketing, or any of a number of other marketing buzz words). If you cater the ad/promo/mailing to the recipient, you can send out far fewer pieces to fewer participants, but thanks to higher hit percentage, yield better results.

I'm sure the number of attempted infections from this attack are very small in the scale of typical virus'. But I would not be surprised if the number of successful infections was pretty high, relatively speaking.

Don't recall that episode

[oodaloop]

I guess I'm not hardcore enough. Does this mean I have to turn in my geek card?

Re:

[k33l0r]

No, but you do lose hit points and get knocked down a level.

Re:

[oodaloop]

The player's handbook clearly says I shouldn't lose XPs for tha...I mean, uh, I don't get your nerdy joke!

Re:

[LordSnooty]

I guess I'm not hardcore enough. Does this mean I have to turn in my geek card?

No, but you will lose your card for not doing something like this: http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=chunkylover53+site%3Asnpp.com [google.co.uk]

he's not online

[v1]

I just tried adding to my list but he's not line.

Re:he's not online

[plover]

I don't know why you had a problem. That's a perfectly cromulent username.

Re:he's not online

[phobos13013]

It is very embiggening of you to make this comment!

I can imagine how this will wrap up

[SirLurksAlot]

"Hello, this is Homer Simpson aka Chunkylover53! The court has ordered me to IM every person in town to apologize for my botnet scheme. I'm sorry. If you can find it in your heart to forgive me, send one dollar to : Sorry Dude, 742 Evergreen Terrace, Springfield. You have the power!"

Re:I can imagine how this will wrap up

[Daniel Weis]

I'll need your state to actually send the dollar to you. :)

Re:I can imagine how this will wrap up

[SirLurksAlot]

Of course! It's the state bordered by Ohio, Nevada, Maine, and Kentucky. You know the one!

Re:

[Daniel Weis]

Haha. Anyone interested in following the trail should look here: http://simpsons.wikia.com/wiki/Springfield's_State [wikia.com]

Re:

[CrazyJim1]

Just paypal $1 to [e-mail]

Homer's Response

[Silicon Jedi]

D'oh!

homer...

[owlnation]

mmmmmmmm... trojans...

Re:homer...

[FlyingSquidStudios]

mmmmmmmmmm... turkey...

Re:

[Opportunist]

Great, now I'm hungary.

Re:

[pHatidic]

Joey, have you ever been in a turkish botnet?

Re: Don Homer

[Man in Spandex]

Mmmmmmmmmmmmmm, organized crime.....

Offspring Strangulation

[pipingguy]

"from the why-you-little dept."

My son and I used to do this all the time. Problem is, he's bigger and stronger than me now. Maybe I can trick him with a magic rock...

Homer IS "dumb" enough to run an AV scam!

[dogberto]

Recall that there was a Simpsons episode where he salvages an auto-caller to run a telemarketing scam on the residents of Springfield.

Also recall that Homer actually did figure out how to setup a website and post "blogs" in his stint as Mr. X.

So, all someone has to do is give him a spiel of how a particular program or an infected computer (not known to Homer of course) can provide him with easy money, and he'll be more than happy to distribute that program en masse or very quickly hook up his computer to th

Ha Ha

[Krneki]

Ha ha .... it was Nelson's mail.

*.exe

[cyanidecircuitry]

Given that the link is clearly an executable file NOT a video file or a link to a page with streaming video, who would be stupid enough to fall for it?

Oh yeah, AIM users.

Re:

[Yvan256]

As opposed to what? MSN users?

Re:

[cyanidecircuitry]

You have a point. That shouldn't really be directed at AIM specifically, more instant messaging users in general. It may be different over there, but here they are primarily "cool" teenagers discussing parties and sex (and measuring their social standing by how many chat windows/tabs they have open at once).

Re:

[phulegart]

I'd have to agree completely... if it weren't for self-extracting archives.

Don't worry about responding with "Who would be stupid enough to download a self-extracting archive?". I don't think you want to remove sourceforge in it's entirety (or any other resource site that distributes files in archives)... which would be the next step if you think people are too stupid to download a single executable that contains what they were looking to download.

Re:

[Technician]

I don't think you want to remove sourceforge in it's entirety (or any other resource site that distributes files in archives)... which would be the next step if you think people are too stupid to download a single executable that contains what they were looking to download.

I prefer the option to open an archive and extract the files without running the .exe self extractor. I often opt for a .deb or .tar.gz file instead of an .exe.

Re:

[Technician]

I love Ubuntu. Often a photo or video online results in the what do you want to do with this .exe file? Save or Cancel.

Sometimes AV software has to try to eject malware after it ran. On Ubuntu, it doesn't run.

Any installer needing admin privilages aslo fail. I don't browse as admin.

The Internet ?!?!?

[ancient_kings]

Is that thing still around !?!?

Re:

[nurb432]

Ya, its still there. The government, and comcast, haven't killed it off totally, yet.

Re:

[Opportunist]

Hey, give 'em time, that takes a while. We're talking about government AND comcast here, after all.

sure!

[Danzigism]

of course Homer can fix it. he just needs to press the "Any" key then drink a "Tab".

Doesn't run on Linux!

[D H NG]

I saw I logged on 2 days ago. I realized that it was a link to malware or trojan but downloaded it and ran it anyway because I was running Ubuntu. It just gave an error saying it couldn't connect to the "photo server". Now that username is pushing an adult dating website.

Mmmmm...

[Bairradino]

Mmmmm... Turkish...

Of course

[EdIII]

What I want to know is, is Homer smart enough to run an AV scan?

He's a NUCLEAR SAFETY EXPERT at a Nuclear Power Plant. I am sure that qualifies him to run antivirus. Right?

Re:

[AlgorithMan]

He only got his diploma by cheating...

Re:

[Technician]

I am sure that qualifies him to run antivirus. Right?

I'm not so sure. Every week he drops that radioactive bolt in the street. Won't he ever learn?

Unsued AOL names expire...

[LostCluster]

It's not that hard to explain how the address fell into "the wrong hands". AOL/AIM names that are not used for a certain length of time expire back into the pool that anybody can register.

Re:

[Terranaut]

re the title: Does that mean that in order to keep my AIM name, it has to get sued? :p

Re:

[LostCluster]

Ugh... where's spell check when I need it?

Just to rub your nose in it...

[religious freak]

Upon inserting the trojan on your box, their message reads...

"You've been hacked... purple monkey dishwasher"

GAH!

However

[Krusty_Klown]

If you get an IM from [e-mail], that is totally legit.

That was episode...

[AlgorithMan]

S14E08 - The Dad Who Knew Too Little
(#EABF03 / SI-1403) aired January 12th 2003

is it a bad sign, that i found it within 1-2 minutes?

Re:

[AlgorithMan]

is it a worse sign, that I submitted that message without even bothering to check, if it was correct?

Olig.

[kitsunewarlock]

I for one welcome our new botnet scamming overlords.