Copying photo's/pictures using IE8

[Plastic Nev]

It has come to my notice that folk are finding themselves infected through hidden malware on photo's, pictures or other web based images. It is happening due to a facility within Internet Explorer where a member of certain types of forum, not necessarily not innocent ones, as this happens with quit ordinary types of forum that will accept an image.

Quite simply, you go to say Google images, find an image you wish to share with others on the chosen forum. A right click on the image, choose "Copy", got to your forum and simply paste into the reply box. The image is shown in the reply box and subsequently on the forum page once the reply is posted.

OK if the original image is a safe one, not so if there is malware hidden within the images code. The malware is transferred to your clipboard during the copy process, and it then installs itself on your machine.

even though the image will be deleted when the clipboard is used for another copy, it is too late, the malware is in.

This can be done with greater safety if the copy is done using the "Save Image As" facility is used, especially if using Firefox instead of Internet explorer. The "save image as" facility does mean the image will be on your computer, but if configured correctly it will be scanned by your antivirus software before it is accepted.