« Possible EMAIL Virus Shows Incompetence | Main | Weekend »
October 9, 2005
Notes from Ferdy - Hackers Develop Trojan to Destroy Hacked PSPs
Symantec recently announced the discovery of a Trojan Horse program designed to render the Playstation Portable inoperable.
The PSP, from its inception, has been more than a portable gaming console. It also functioned as an MP3 player and its games could connect to the web from a wireless hotspot. Almost immediately after the PSP hit the market, users discovered ways to hack the software so you could use the PSP to run applications. The most benign of these hacks allowed people who owned the game Wipeout to browse the web. The most pernicious allowed people to download and play games they hadn't purchased.
The latest firmware upgrade for the PSP contains a built-in web browser and fixes some of the security holes. Already, however, someone has discovered a way to downgrade from version 2.0 to 1.5.
Trojan.PSPBrick is designed to trap the people doing all this hacking and cracking. Disguised as game software, the Trojan destroys critical system files (including the ones required to update or restore your firmware) and turns your PSP into a useless brick. There is no software to protect your PSP from this thing and no way to fix the damaged appliance.
If you are an ordinary PSP user, you are probably safe; however, Trojan.PSPBrick represents a dangerous trend: as ordinary electronic appliances become more powerful and better able to communicate, they also become more vulnerable to malicious software. All I can say is: yuck!
Respectfully submitted,
Ferdinand T. Cat
# At Sun 3:13 AM | Permalink | Trackback URI | Comments (0) | More Notes from Ferdy
Trackback Pings
» Sunday Brunch: 10/9/2005 from Basil's Blog
Try one of these specials with your weekend brunch: The Moderate Voice is following the earthquake. Confederate Yankee is also following the earthquake. Public Eye (Bachman) says Allah takes credit. The Steel Deal finds the UN bombed the smurf out [Read More]
Tracked on October 9, 2005 8:07 AM
Comments
| HTML is not allowed in comments; however, if you put in a raw URL (http://www.somewhere.com/page.html) it will automatically be converted to a link.. Also, it is likely your comment will not appear unless you refresh the page manually after posting it. |
