From technology to politics to video games; these are the random thoughts of a geek with too much time on his hands
Ahahahahahahahahahaahahahahah!
Published on September 6, 2007 By Zoomba In WinCustomize News

Oh sweet irony!  Wired is reporting today that Pfizer, the company that makes the ED medication Viagra, has experienced a bit of a computer problem that resulted in Pfizer PCs being used to send out... wait for it... Viagra spam!

Now, you might think it's just a marketing effort, but it's not.  Computers inside the company's network were infected with a virus that spams random email addresses with messages trying to sell the staple item of Internet spam.  The virus transformed the PCs into zombies, controlled by some spammer to spew massive numbers of messages anonymously, and to avoid email blacklists.

How long has this been going on?  A day or two?  A few weeks?  Try 6 months!  Over 130 Pfizer IPs have been added to email blacklists, which ISPs and companies use to filter known-spammers.

For more details on this hilarious twist of fate, hit up the Wired article in the link below.

Thanks to Koop for sending this story my way.


Comments
on Sep 06, 2007
Too funny! 
I've been in a situation where the security of a company has been breached and the security team has *not* fixed the problem because looking incompetent was a worse personal blow than the breach.  The head of that team found opportunity to excel elsewhere soon after.

You can always count on Koop is always on the cutting edge of erectile dysfunction.
 
on Sep 06, 2007

You can always count on Koop is always on the cutting edge of erectile dysfunction.

Geez...I'd 'a phrased that differently.....  

on Sep 06, 2007
For more details on this hilarious twist of fate,


Something tells me that twisting is not a good thing, nor funny, especially if you use the product!  
on Sep 06, 2007
You can always count on Koop is always on the cutting edge of erectile dysfunction.


I have my ups and downs.....as for the cutting edge, we call that a "briss."

I wonder if there isn't a tie-in to Pfizer's leaving Ann Arbor, a business decision that engendered a lot of bitterness. Was the worm, if such was the root cause, let in by a disgruntled employee? Pfizer abandoned a lot of hardware that they didn't bother to salvage.

Did anyone else notice that the emails also advertised Cialis, a Viagra competitor? Heh!