Opening PowerPoint Documents Pose Heavy Risk to Businesses
by Eirik Iverson, Product Management
The instruments may have changed but the melody is the same. Last month Excel, this month PowerPoint, next month, who knows? The next document you open from someone you know may infect your computer without your ever knowing it. It may steal information you cannot afford to lose and do the same to people that you know. It may do worse!
We cannot trust the software that runs on our computers. We cannot rely soley on traditional PC protection software that rely on signatures. This means that we cannot trust the documents we receive from people we know.
Most malware seeks to infest computers by exploiting a programmer mistake in a piece of software that runs on our computers. When the software consumes a malicious file or communication, it becomes hijacked and compelled to do things, such as:
- Download a malicious executable that permanently implants malware
- Download an executable that launches from user-space (e.g., desktop, My Documents, etc.)
- Use the hijacked application itself to permanently install malware
Today’s malware makers do so to make money. Therefore, they do not want their malware to be noticed. If they can, they’ll root the malware in places that make detection practically impossible. They want to steal any valuable information, user names and passwords, and use your computer to penetrate other resources.
So, next time you see a PowerPoint from a friend or colleague, ask yourself one question: do you feel lucky? Well, do ya?
You do not know that your friend or colleagues’ computer hasn’t already been infested without anyone knowing it. If it has, Excel or PowerPoint documents, or others, could have been tainted. And, just as Botnets change the disguise of their malware every 10 minutes to elude detection, your tried and true anti-Virus/Spyware software probably will not see the harm in your opening your colleague’s PowerPoint document because your Anti-Virus/Spyware does a very poor job of intercepting zero-day malware (i.e., unknown).
