Background images emerging tool of MySpace hackers

MySpace users, look out for a new brand of website hacking technique that’s emerged over the past week. The hack inserts code that loads a background image linking back to a badware site, and has so far had several prominent victims, most notably pop star Alicia Keyes.

A user who clicks anywhere on the site that is not a legitimate, pre-existing link will be redirected by the linked background image to the badware site, apparently hosted in China. The user will also be prompted to download a codec to view videos – something one might expect on a MySpace page – which itself delivers malware.

The attacks were first noted last week by researchers at FaceTime Communications, and have gained widespread coverage this week due to the hacking of Keyes’s page.

While MySpace reacted quickly to reports of the hacks, there is also word that Keyes’s page, at least, has been reinfected once. There’s no estimate yet on how many users may have been infected, or how many MySpace pages have been compromised, but one thing seems certain: this is a technique to watch out for in the future, on MySpace, and beyond.