Hackers have embedded malware into their own digital copies of Michael Wolff’s “Fire and Fury” in an attempt to compromise unsuspecting users online.
As first reported by The Daily Beast’s Joseph Cox Monday, cybersecurity firm Kaspersky Lab’s Michael Molsner shared his discovery of the malware last week on social media.
Sometimes we come across strange malware 😂 8667949f8fd4ce4da0424af4208104e3 pic.twitter.com/D9l4xu62A6
— micham (@micham) January 19, 2018
The PDF document, alleging to be an official copy of Wolff’s book, contains a Windows executable file. If opened, the malware could give a hacker back-door access to a victim’s computer.
The malicious file also contains notably fewer pages – 237 – than the official book’s 328.
At least one of the malicious PDF files has since been taken offline.
Such unauthorized copies of the book are likely to be found across social media and torrenting sites.
While numerous antivirus programs are reportedly able to detect the malware, downloading the file still poses risks to unprotected computers.
Wolff’s book, originally released on Jan. 3, alleges to contain previously unreleased stories from within the White House of President Donald Trump.
In a Jan. 7 tweet, the president labeled Wolff a “discredited author” and his work a “Fake Book.”
“I’ve had to put up with the Fake News from the first day I announced that I would be running for President,” Trump said. “Now I have to put up with a Fake Book, written by a totally discredited author. Ronald Reagan had the same problem and handled it well. So will I!”
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