Another day, another malware scam – This time, the pirated version of Fire and Fury book has been found infecting devices with a backdoor.
An IT security researcher at Kaspersky Labs, Michael Molsner, has pointed out in his latest research that hackers are trying to benefit from the hype that the new book from Michael Wolff titled “Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House.”
As per Molsner, there is a pirated version of the book that is loaded with malicious malware. Digital version of Fire and Fury is officially being sold by renowned eBook retailers like Apple and Amazon and these versions are free from malware. It is the pirated version of the book that is infected and easily available on torrents and social media.
In a tweet posted by Molsner in Friday, he stated that he came across a ‘strange malware,’ that is distributing a PDF version of the book with a Windows executable that provides an attacker remote backdoor access to almost any device without even alerting the user of that device.
Sometimes we come across strange malware 😂 8667949f8fd4ce4da0424af4208104e3 pic.twitter.com/D9l4xu62A6
— micham (@micham) January 19, 2018
This compromised version has more than 230 pages while it is worth noting that the original version has 328 pages. Moreover, analysis of the malware revealed that it can easily be detected by antivirus programs.
Previously, Julian Assange’s WikiLeaks also tweeted about the presence of a link that provided access to a Google Drive where the full text of Fire and Fury was available. This link now redirects to an error message and says that the page cannot be accessed due to a violation of Google’s terms of service. Regarding the pirated version of the book, experts believe that it is difficult to assess whether it is safe or unsafe.
Fire and Fury have become a chart-topper on Amazon since its release on January 5 and is likely to become a bestseller considering that the book contains provocative anecdotes about President Trump and his close aides while painting the White House as dysfunctional and the President mentally unfit for the high-profile position. Understandably, the White House has thrashed this book and entitled it as Trash and Full of Lies. Trump tweeted about Fire and Fury on January 13:
“So much Fake News is being reported. They don’t even try to get it right or correct it when wrong. They promote the Fake Book of a mentally deranged author, who knowingly writes false information. The Mainstream Media is crazed that WE won the election.”
What’s even more intriguing is the fact that the malware was discovered by a researcher at Kaspersky Labs, which is a Russian cybersecurity firm that already has been blamed for having close ties with Russian intelligence services.
We would suggest that you buy the digital version of Fire and Fury from official distributors only instead of relying on torrenting sites and always scan links, URLs, documents and files on VirusTotal or with your anti-virus software.
