3rd virus attack at Photo Bucket - BEWARE!

[deltadude]

I am NOT trying to persuade anyone to NOT using Photobucket! This is NOT a joke there are several posts in this thread that clearly indicates there is a problem at Photobucket. Just because you have not been hit does not indicate your AV is working for you. The attacks are not persistent, they are random, there is more than one way for these attacks to occur and it is some kind of pull through technology that I don't understand.

If you haven't had a problem with Photobucket, then you don't need to do anything, and that is great. As I said I have contacted Photobucket and received a courtesy response, which doesn't address the problem except they are looking into the problem.

If Google is threatening to pull out of China because of all the hacking that is happening targeting Google's system, and they feel they're too vulnerable to continue, you better start realizing that ANY SITE is vulnerable and thus you are vulnerable, it is not a question of IF you are going to be hit by a serious malicious virus/trojan/rootkit it is simply a matter of WHEN. WHEN it happens your trusted AV software most likely has failed, and you will have to find new tools to deal with the problem.

 

[jon foster]

PBase, Zenfolio and Flickr are probably the best options for picture hosting. They are the most proactive in protecting your intellectual property rights (Copyright). Some sites like Photobucket will even sell your pictures/images to make a profit. The key to remember is, generally, nothing is free.

Jon.

 

[deltadude]

I have received 3 emails from Photobucket. They are not ignoring the problem, but haven't been able to locate the source.

If anyone is attacked please try and pay close attention of where you were at and what was on that page.

thanks

 

[the dude abides]

I figured it out. And I'm not too bright.

You missed Shutterfly. They're a pretty decent sized company. The worse thing I get from them is an email once a week reminding me of how I can order free prints. I've never ordered anything in my 5 or so years of using them. I suppose it's their way of trying to make money. No money=no more company. But they're the only ones I've ever used, so I'm not knocking any of the other options.

Which brings up an interesting point. You want to make sure you're either backing up your photos to a disc or someplace else. I'm just guessing there are several of these little photo hosting sites that will not make it in the long run. If this is the only place you have your photos stored, they'll be gone forever if they shut down.

 

[deltadude]

I added edited the list to include Shutterfly, thanks for the input.

 

[allen]

I went to open Photobucket this Morning and waaalaaa trojan virus, I can't access my E-Mail acct. now,I'll try something different later

 

[deltadude]

70,500 hits on Google for photobucket +infected with virus

Confirmation by Photobucket...
Photobucket has been really discreet about making any information public regarding the thousands of PB users being attacked on Photobucket from mid Jan 2010, until about a week ago. I have tried to stay current on this because many SMF users (including me) regularly use PB. I found tweets reporting the same virus issues, and one girl claiming she was in contact with PB via tweet and that PB acknowledge the problem. I asked for some kind of confirmation and she hasn't responded, but says PB thinks they have solved the Virus problem as of 4 days ago.

I did find the following quote from a PB support email response. You will have to scroll down to the comments section to see the email.
http://www.cafemom.com/journals/read...tobucket_virus

In reading through the replys to this thread, there are some who think the problem isn't PB but those of us who have been attacked, that our Anti Virus is sub par or theirs is superior. ONE MORE TIME, the PB attacks were NOT persistent, they were random! Reading dozens of post on these attacks reveals that almost every major Anti Virus software was installed and NONE protected the PB user. So if your a PB regular, and haven't been attacked, you haven't randomly been hit PERIOD! If you are hit, you would be getting AV warnings from your AV software. To the best of my knowledge the only program effective in clean-up has been Malwarebytes. However clean-up is not prevention.

We can only hope that Photobucket was successful in their attempt to weed out the problems.



Below are just a few links to other forums complaining about the same PB virus attacks.

http://forums.ebay.com/db2/topic/Clo...s-38/510184619

http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&sourc...J71_tAEX9ZDZLA

http://www.trapperman.com/forum/ubbt...ml#Post1815760

http://www.poi-factory.com/node/27579


http://forums.ubi.com/eve/forums/a/t...038#7881083038


http://www.fredmiranda.com/forum/topic/860412/0#8052376

http://mypcclinic.com/forums/printthread.php?t=28579

 

[sweet chops bbq]

Im a PC.LOL

 

[chisoxjim]

I hadnt had an issue until this AM on Photobucket, after I downloaded a pic here, I got a message that my computer was infected, and some non windows, or norton program tried installing itself on my pc. I quickly shut down the pc, and have run the Norton quick scan(turned up nothing bad), and the Malware scan(turned up nothing). I am now doing a full system scan.

I logged back onto Photobucket, and didnt have any issues linking pics.

 

[forluvofsmoke]

Sounds like you did the right thing by shutting down. Good thing to know, in case it happens again, or to anyone else.

I got slammed 5 weeks ago, and spent the entire day formatting/restoring. I was able to copy my personal folders to CD's, so didn't suffer that loss, but none of the programs could be used, as this bug was operating in the background and blocked any commands, including task manager.

I've been back on PB many times since then, and haven't had problems. I think it is a random thing, as Deltadude mentioned...you either get hit, or you don't, and very few (if any) of the security measures can stop it.

But, if this just happened now, they obviously have not corrected the security issue.

I just hope we don't loose PB as a host...I really like the speed and features a lot. Re-posting the old q-view pics to threads would be a monumental task, as well. Keep your fingers crossed.

Eric

 

[chisoxjim]

luckily all scans came up clean(I did the Norton twice, and the Malware 2x as well.

I like Photobucket, and hope they can figure this isue out. I used o use Flickr but didnt like their monthly download limits.