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• Posted Nov. 6, 2012, 11:59 p.m. - 11 years, 12 months ago

PDF Trojan Seen Again

It has been around since 2009 but variations have also appeared now and then.  The Pidief (pronounced PDF) Trojan is spread through an infected PDF file.

 

We have had reports of people being infected through PDF files and it seems that the majority of infections involve someone sending you an infected PDF and tricking you into opening it.  One of the symptoms is opening the infected PDF and the reader displays a blank screen.  Sometimes the reader restarts.

The best protection against such infections is your head – think before you click on a PDF file.

Ask yourself a few questions:

Do you know the person who sent you the file?  If so, did the person actually send it to you?  Many times viruses and Trojans spread through email attachments and pretend to be from a person you know.

Is the PDF from the IRS, the BBB, FBI, or other important agencies?  If so, definitely do not open these files as these agencies never send unsolicited PDF files.

If you are the winner of a lottery whether you played that lottery or not, do not open the PDF.  Lottery officials do not notify winners with a PDF.  Besides, Irish Sweepstakes and other foreign lotteries are illegal in the US.  They also do not notify you with a PDF file.

The next best protection is for you to install a good anti-virus and anti-malware suite and make sure it is updated.  Some suits update at least once a day and more often if there are especially dangerous threats.

Some of these PDF infections involve the use of JavaScript.  If your PDF reader allows JavaScript execution, disable that option in the settings.

Trojan Horse photo via Flickr by max_trudo

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