Hackers putting malware in pirated copies of 'Fire and Fury'

By wagatwe  

Tuesday Jan 23, 2018 · 2:59 PM EST

Michael Woff’s book Fire and Fury has attracted tons of attention for anyone even vaguely curious about life inside the Trump White House and copies have been flying off the shelves. Wikileaks posted a PDF copy of the book and pirated copies quickly began making the rounds. Unsurprisingly, hackers jumped on the opportunity to do some misdeeds. Cybersecurity firm employee Michael Molsner tweeted the discovery.

Sometimes we come across strange malware 😂 8667949f8fd4ce4da0424af4208104e3 pic.twitter.com/D9l4xu62A6
— micham (@micham) January 19, 2018

The Daily Beast did a little digging into malware, which is in a PDF file with almost 100 pages cut from the full 328 page version.

The Daily Beast obtained a sample of the malware, and processed it through an online analysis service, which marked the files as a so-called backdoor. A backdoor may give hackers remote access to a victim’s computer.

It’s not the most exciting or underground malware in the world: A slew of antivirus programs detect the malicious program, according to results from malware analysis site Virus Total.

So it isn’t the most devastating cyber attack, but it’s important to get your materials from authorized sources. Hackers aren’t above capitalizing on nonfiction political bestsellers to gain access to your computer.