Circuit City Home Theater Support Forum Hacked

[Roger]

Learn to protect yourself from the latest wave of Russian hackers!

Mega-store Circuit City was unwittingly distributing a virus for the past two weeks before it was discovered and cleaned up yesterday. Circuit City's Home Theater message boards were hacked and had been distributing a virus. This is a good excuse to for having better taste in forums. The forum’s URL is part of forum.circuitcity.com and is not part of the greater www.circuitcity.com website. So if you’ve visited the regular Circuit City site lately, don’t worry.

Visitors of the message boards using an unpatched Internet Explorer browser were liable to have the virus installed on their PCs. The virus routed victims to a website out of Russia that installs a harmful back door on your computer. This opening gave hackers control over the Circuit City Forum user's computer that could be used to steal secure financial information from the user.

Only visitors with Microsoft's Internet Explorer browser that hadn't been updated with last January's patch were susceptible. This is a good reason to keep up with those Windows Updates. The .biz website where the virus was sending victims is hosted by a Russian Internet service provider. This website happens to be on the same block of IP Addresses as a serious Internet fraud attack earlier this year that hit thousands of computers worldwide.

The Washington Post reported on this infamous attack in March. It has been identified as among the most sophisticated cases of Internet fraud yet. This keylogger hack also exploited Microsoft's Internet Explorer. Victims of this scam were duped into clicking a link to a Russian website that let perpetrators record user’s keystrokes. This opens the door to a world of your secure information including credit card numbers and other sensitive data.

The method behind the hack was a clever one and worth filing away for your personal rip-off detector. A victim name Graeme Frost in England received an email summarizing a digital camera purchase with his credit card. A link within the email was specifically for disputing the bill. Now is when the red flag should go up! Graeme clicked it and was taken to a web page that installed the password stealing program that transmitted personal and financial information that presumably he typed in himself trying to get to the bottom of the purchase. The keylogger logs his keystrokes and the hackers make off with the loot.

Dasvidanya!

Wayde Robson
Editor www.hometheaterfocus.com
Contributor www.Audioholics.com

Link To Original Article

[Josuah]

Roger wrote:

This is a good excuse to for having better taste in forums.

That's kind of a stupid thing to say. I guess Home Theater Focus is run by a elitist snob.

[Sonnie]

I wonder how a visitor is supposed to learn about a particular forum without visiting it to begin with anyway? I can see a few learning about it via various channels, but not everyone. So I have a bad taste for forums because I didn't do proper investigations prior to visiting? Hmmmm.

[GarbageDog]

Hometheaterfocus usually recommends not buying electronics from big box stores and using smaller hi-fi shops instead. It was a (half) joke. Maybe the writer should have put a winky emocon next to that line.

[GarbageDog]

Sonnie wrote:

So I have a bad taste for forums because I didn't do proper investigations prior to visiting? Hmmmm.

C'mon, it's not a forum per se, it's Circuit City. It's a CC sales/support line disguised as a forum. I've read incidents of posts on that forum being removed because they said something bad about the service they got at Circuit City.

Doesn't take that much investigation to see the CircuitCity name inside ... forum.circuitcity.com

If you see "McDonalds Restaurant"

Do you think because it's a "restaurant" you might actually get good food?

[GarbageDog]

Josuah wrote:

That's kind of a stupid thing to say.

Sigh... no compliments on the stunning feats of investigative journalism involved in discovering the block of IPs bit that finishes the story
(note: winky emocon - joking)

Most other sources weren't putting that together, not even Cnet.

I can say this... this forum has good taste in news sources! And if you're using a private forum like this (not run by a retail outlets like McDonalds and Circuit City) you've probably got good taste in forums. (no winky emocon - sincere)

[Sonnie]

We will continue to use Focus as a news source... nobody is perfect, including the best Hi Fi shops and best restaurants.

I still think the comments was somewhat inappropriate. CC sells some fine products and provides a genuine service for many people. We just purchased an Apple iPod there the other night... they had the best price.

McDonalds food is good to some people... especially kids.

[GarbageDog]

Good words Sonny, this thread raises an interesting point. Maybe only interesting to me though

Most news blogs give you one person's take, warts and all. That's what makes blogs cool.

CC Forums are an infomercial for its products and services. That's not an opinion, it's just how it is. That's fine if you want to know the return policy of your iPod.

But...

I wouldn't suggest going there for an unbiased evaluation of the merits of the iPod vs Creative Zen vs Sony Walkman.

The writer clearly never said anyone deserves to be hacked or the victim of an online crime. However he is questioning the taste of someone who hangs out at that forum.

There are too many good forums out there with nothing to sell... audioholics, avsforums, avforum and the Shack.

Consumer Reports did a story in a recent product catalogue on how people buy electronics. Consumer preference is toward retail outlets that lack competent customer service and product knowledge. That's why Sams, WalMart, BestBuy and CC are doing so well.

CR wasn't out to offend anyone who works at these places; the information was the result of consumer surveys.

Long time readers of Focus will have seen the story on Future Shop and Monster (cables). Other big box stores in the US have the same deal with Monster.

Those booths with a split screen TV that supposedly show you the "Monster Difference" are downright criminal. They only add to consumer confusion over cabling standards. And don't get me started on the "cable cult".

A retail outlet providing a "forum" are like a spider inviting a fly to tea at his cozy web. Are we really defending CC Forums as a valid place to get information? The name CircuitCity in the URL should be a red flag to any visitor.

It should be the responsibility of "real" forums (like the Shack) to warn people of that danger.

I honestly think people who hang out at the CC forum have bad taste in forums. Is that really offensive to anyone?

Thanks for reading.

BTW you guys are now back-linked.

[Josuah]

I still don't see how one's taste in forums makes it less likely for you to be the victim of a malicious attack. It doesn't really matter what your personal opinion of a forum is. I don't think Home Theater Shack or Home Theater Focus are necessarily "safer" places to visit.

I wasn't offended. I just thought it was "bad taste" to say something like that. :P AV123 and Outlaw both run forums on their sites. AudioCircles has a large number of commercial-ish forum categories. AVSForum has sales representatives (and seems to be really cracking down on some topics). CircuitCity's forums are as legitimate a place to get information. Smart shoppers get their information from many places, as you've mentioned.

[Sonnie]

So... GarbageDog... you write that blog? I chose that feed because I so thuroughly enjoy it on a day to day basis. We certainly appreciate the back link.

This is rather interesting.

I do agree that CC does a poor job of hiring competent employees to sell their products, at least in our area... and obviously according to CR, in many areas. Had I not already done some investigations on the iPod that we were looking for... I wouldn't have gotten the info at CC the other night. When we got there we had two different sales people walk by us doing nothing. I asked one of them was he the guy for iPods and he said he didn't know anything about them but would get me someone. Shortly a young girl comes around the corner and asked could she help us. I in reply asked her if she was the iPod expert (not that I needed an expert - just a comment - we knew what we wanted). She replied that she wasn't an expert but could sell us a unit. She didn't even know it was on sale. Later our friends who were with us were looking at a few of the VCR/DVD-RW units. The fella who was selling in that area reached his had up, gently raising the small info tag stuck on the counter below the particular unit in question and exclaimed that this particular unit has bla bla bla and read the info tag... then run his finger across the front of the display machine and read the labels on the machine itself... duh. There could have very well been competent employees around, we just didn't get to meet them.

We could learn something from this I suppose. First, if we are gonna shop at CC, know what we need to know before going there to buy and simply use it as a place to pick up what you want. A good reason for them to have the online ordering and pick-up service. Second, if CC has the same type of people running their forum and answering questions at their forum... I can see where folks wouldn't get that much valuable info. Granted there might be people there that are members who might know more, but I wonder if they would actually hang out there for a long time.

If we are aware of the reviews like CR provided and experiences such as ours at CC the other night... in those situations I would think we would gather that the CC forum wouldn't necessarily be the right place to go and learn about a product we wanted to buy. For those that are not that familiar with forums, I don't know that it would be considered bad taste as much as it would just being unfortunate. I also suspect this could be a large number of people simply shopping online. CC is advertised pretty well and probably a lot of people go online to shop there... run across the CC forum and it may very well be the only forum they've ever seen or know of.

As to malicious attacks... those kinds of things concern me even here at the Shack. It's hard to control what links are posted to where. I can only imagine somewhere like AVS being a nightmare to control links. Of course we are not taking credit cards or selling anything so maybe that helps us be less of a target... but there are other ways to be malicious.

[GarbageDog]

Good chat Sonnie.

Yes, I write the 'blog' but I use the term lightly because there are no comments and I think comments are critical to blogs (the people that "run" the site are letting it go but it's up for a redesign). I also write news and reviews for other websites in the technology field.

Honestly, when I said what I said in that blog it was an offhand joking comment. I know those things don't translate well to text. But it does expose a bigger point. I believed that some of you might actually trust a CC forum to provide the same value as other forums. And that makes me a little sad.

That is the crux of my continuing responses and what's interesting in this thread. The comment in the blog was hardly malicious and I wouldn't attack any individual on my blog or otherwise. Certainly someone who uses CC forums just doesn't know there are better out there, no harm in that. It's probably a great place to rave about an awesome purchase you made at CC, no harm there either.

Sonnie wrote:

I do agree that CC does a poor job of hiring competent employees to sell their products

Really, that's probably hit and miss. There are liable to be many really quality people hired to wear the CC uniform. Same with any of those stores.

The big box store is simply a different animal to the mom and pop hi-fi and TV shops. The big box stores aren't family owned, there are no sales associates that intend on being there for very many years. The same sales/client rappor simply cannot possibly exist. It's not the fault of the employees and according to the Consumer Reports the "people" (you and me) prefer it that way. And why not, we can just research on line.

Add to that establishments like CC, BestBuy, FutureShop and probably more... rather underhanded tactics to sell stuff you don't need - like Monster cables and "AC line protector/purifier" and extended warranties. (that's another discussion I'd love to have sometime) But it's through those extras the big retailers make the big bucks.

So, I have nothing against CC pre se. There are plenty of great deals to be had. I would buy from them myself and I do use Future Shop (here in Canada) sometimes too.

But would I go to a Future Shop employee for a rundown of the latest display technologies? No, and neither should you!

Here is where I guess I'm being kind of a dick and taking a hard line. CC-BestBuy-Future Shop don't exist to inform the customer. Their very business model is such that trades service for the bottom line. And that's fair, in fact we consumers demand it! But people mistake the guy in the Best Buy pullover for an "expert" at their peril.

So, to summarize. It was an offhanded comment. You know when you read a news story and you say to yourself the first thing that pops into your head. It might not always be pretty. Well that's what HTFBlog is all about.

Do I have anything against CC, it's customers or employees? No, not unless they make fun my ingrown toenail or something

But people should know what they're getting into when using a forum. Advertising on a forum is a whole other thing. AVSForum, Audioholics and indeed my own website are monetized through add links. But that doesn't necessarily sully the message. But the CC IS the forum, and that does necessarily sully the message. It's a conflict of interest, it's why for years banks couldn't enter the insurance biz.

My own add links are generated from a company that puts them up based on keywords used on the pages of the site. I have no idea who is advertising, and I don't care. I don't tone down my message for them at all. In fact, I have a page that hammers on Bose and I'm sure that a Bose add pops up there.

The service that provides the ads wouldn't want to sully the "message". They want me to be as pure as possible and speak my mind even if it's not always pretty. That's the beauty of the web

Thanks for the chats. I am certain that we'll dig more topics in the future. I will often take an unpopular stance. Many of us won't always agree. But I promise to always be respectful to everyone and explain myself in detail.

[Sonnie]

The comment in the blog was hardly malicious and I wouldn't attack any individual on my blog or otherwise.

I hope you didn't take my comment about malicious attacks as pointed towards you. Just to clarify that, I was referring to the malicious attacks that happened to those that visited the Russian link at the CC forum. Those kind of attacks are what scare me. I really didn't think your comments were malicious. You even went back, edited your blog and qualified your statement.

I very much see your point of the whole. It's ultimately a good warning in the end of all said. A valid point and a valid warning. I'm sure it's hard to get everyone to always agree with you, if you did then you'd have to contradict yourself at some point in time. And as we all know... everyone has an opinion... obviously some different from others.

All in all, I think you do a good job and hope you can continue through the redesign.

[GarbageDog]

Thanks Sonnie.

I think you guys have done a good job on this site too. We tried to have a forum on HTF but it's pretty dead. But there isn't nearly as many people involved in it as the Shack.

Hey, I like to think I'm open minded. In this new world of Infomercials hey, maybe a retailers is capable of contributing to "community" without a me first end. Who knows, it could be my own limitation and old school anti-commercialized thinking that makes me think it's not possible.

Anyway, I'm going to try it. I've made an account on CC's forum. I am going to lurk it for awhile then add a few tactful recommendations to people to seek products that aren't sold by CC. I'll even suggest a different retailer. I'm interested to see if my account gets banned and/or if the posts get removed.

[Sonnie]

Thanks to you as well... we are trying really hard to have a great forum. I think we have started out on the right track... hopefully we can continue.

heehee... that will be interesting at CC. I might have to join just to see your progress.