Malware authors are now targeting young fans of the High School Musical series with fake files planted on peer-to-peer networks. Instead of downloading a song or video clip from the latest movie, victim's are really getting infected by "VB.ADQ, the Agent.KGR Trojan, the adware Koolbar, or another strain of malicious code," according to Panda Security.
Now, this tack of hiding malicious code behind seemingly legitimate file names is not new and has been around since the beginning of peer-to-peer networks. However, riding on the coattails of a film series popular with younger users might help increase the number of infections as less security-savvy users download files with an ".exe" extension, ignorant of the potential implications.
As always, keep your anti-virus software up-to-date and, particularly if your kids are using your work machine for trolling the 'net, be wary of what they many be downloading.
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Hope for security novices
I'm sure you are right that hackers love to prey on the innocent, less security-savvy computer users. Unfortunately, for that group, once they do get a virus, they are not likely to know how to go about removing it and otherwise fighting back.
I've been exploring a new online community called BadwareBusters that aims to fill that void by being a safe place for computer newbies to get help fighting back against malware. The site, from StopBadware and Consumer Reports WebWatch, is at BadwareBusters.org.