Pfizer's Computers Infected by Viruses, Used to Spam-Advertise Their Products

[zekrahminator]

Drug company Pfizer, known for making such famous drugs as Viagra, owns several computers that people claim have been "zombified". Security firms everywhere are warning Pfizer that an unknown amount of their computers are slinging spam to internet users far and wide. The spam itself is nothing spectacular; it's just the usual assortment of penile extensions, fake watches, and Nigerian scandals. Rick Wesson, CEO of Support Intelligence, claims that this has been going on for at least six months. His company, an anti-virus and security firm, collected 600 spam emails to prove it. Support Intelligence estimates that 138 Pfizer IP addresses have been blacklisted by various spam-fighting groups. Despite several warnings from anti-virus companies, Pfizer seems to have done nothing to stop the flow of spam.

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[Thermopylae_480]

"do you want a longer penis"

Please people. Stop spamming pointless messages in the News section. That sort of behavior is only allowed in General Nonsense. Please keep it there. Often times these meaningless spam posts just lead to argument and flamming, and the news section is the worst when it comes to such behavior. If you don't have anything to add to the conversation, that contributes to the discussion, please don't post.

Thanks,
Thermopylae_480

 

[Seany1212]

so Pfizer have been sending out viruses to comps that then zombify and foward spam to everybody else? Or are Pfizer's computers the zombified ones that send out the spam?

 

[TUngsten]

There is a great article in Wired detailing this from last week.
http://www.wired.com/politics/security/news/2007/09/pfizerspam

It's pretty intense to think that a HUGE company like Pfizer could be actually a zombie bot-nest, and the company is (so far) basically pretending they aren't the problem. This sort of thing is no small matter, esp. when taken in the context of the recent DOS botnet attack on Estonia.

I actually think this is rather newsworthy, while a lot of "news" tends to be hardware release info we've already heard that would best fit into the...."hardware" category.

Further, criticizing another mod in the public forum is uncalled for. That's what PMs are for.

 

[Thermopylae_480]

I was not criticizing Zek, the offending post I was referring to was deleted by the user, you can no longer see it.

 

[3991vhtes]

Can't moderators restore deleted posts?

 

[Thermopylae_480]

Yes, they can. Please get back on topic.

 

[Weer]

Yes, they can. Please get back on topic.

Yes, sir. Right, sir.
Everything here is A-OK, sir.

 

[PVTCaboose1337]

You know stuff is bad when a huge company can not hire smart enough people to keep viruses off their computer. Even I could do that... this is a disgrace...

 

[FreedomEclipse]

Well if they were spamming that much they could have at least double checked & sure the spam they were spamming was infact the edible kind, then maybe. JUST MAYBE world hunger could finally be something done, dusted & swept under the carpet where it lives out the remainder of its hungerful life in darkness & isolation with the exception of dust bunnies that tend to somehow collect underneath the carpet.

hopefully Pfizer wont be sued that hard for gross negeleance & also for every spam mail that was sent from each of their computers...taking them & their coporation/organisation under the blue rippling waves of the pacific.....how romantic....


{The phone rings...}

-={Some guy picks up the phone & before he even gets to say hallelouyah high heaven he is greeted by.....]=-

"Doooooooooode, you've been totally spamming my pc your computer!!

-=The guy is confused=-


"Errr....Sorry, but do I know you?"

-{the guy not wanting to sound unpolite}-

"C'ourse you do you've been spamming my inbox for the last 24hrs!"

-={the guy is even more deeply confused & thinks its a prank but doesnt want to let on that he let me prankster won so.........}=-

"I'm Sorry, I think you got the wrong Number...."


-={He hangs up & thinks nothing more of it}=-

-{10mins later the phone rings again....}-

={He picks up}=


"Hel...."

"Doooooooode I havent got the wrong number & dont bother hanging up or im going to sue your ass within farting distance of mars!"

-={the guy now is getting very very annoyed & agitatted....}=-

"How....How do you know its me sending the spam & how did you get my number? are you some kinda sadist because I will call the police if you dont stop harassing me!"

-=The Dude on the otherside of the phone is also getting annoyed as he is now being insulted=-

"Look, I didnt stay up 5hours last night going through a f**king phonebook & decide to ring somebody halfway around the world just so I could get my nuts off!

{the guy is even more annoyed but yet bemused that somebody would call from half way across the world just to tell him about spam....}

"If you really want to know, I got your name & number off an i.p/website tracker/tracer programme called 'WhoIs' & Its traced the the spams i.p back to your location right in the heart of Colorado"

{TBC}

Will the Doooode ever be rid of this surfer stalker muppet?
Will the guy ever get his mailbox unbar'd by administraition because he has just too much spam?

tune in next time where a mysterious finding causes total Arnold style mayhem!

Until next time on "Doooooooode! wheres my firewall!!!!!"

 

[PVTCaboose1337]

I agree with the above post... "Dude wheres my firewall" is correct. Common sense... It's like 88 year women are running the computer department. Come on what is the problem with them.

 

[Demon_82]

Isn't half of spam mail about selling their own drugs? That may have soemthing to do with their passiveness... XD

 

[TUngsten]

Yeah, pretty ironic that so much of their spam is related to their products:shadedshu

 

[PVTCaboose1337]

Oh ya... That might be a conspiracy...

y0\_/ \/\//\|\|7 \/14gr4
or something like that in emails.

 

[WarEagleAU]

Well its lasted longer than 4 hours, they need to contact their physician.

 

[Grings]

I worked at the Sandwich (its a place in the uk btw) Pfizer for a while, never did get round to spamming people en masse though...