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Computer security specialists warn that hackers are using fake YouTube pages to trick people into opening their machines to diabolical software.

A deceptive YouTube attack evolving as it spreads on the Internet is part of a growing trend of hackers to prowl popular online social networking communities in which people trustingly share web links and mini-programs.

"We are seeing tools like this not just for YouTube, but for MySpace, Facebook, America Online instant messaging ...," Trend Micro software threat research manager Jamz Yaneza told AFP on Thursday.

"All the various social networking sites have been hit with some page or another."

Hackers using the YouTube attack send people links to what are said to be must-see snippets at the Google-owned video-sharing website.

The links, instead, connect to convincingly realistic replicas of YouTube pages and tell people that a software update is needed to view a requested video.

Agreeing to the update lets the hacker install malicious software that could log keystrokes, steal data, or even take over people's computers, according to David Perry of Trend Micro.

Victims are not likely to catch onto the invasion since the hackers' software is able to stealthily link to the real YouTube website and play a promised video.

"This works as your typical drive-by download," Yaneza said of hackers planting malicious software in machines while rerouting online traffic.

"Essentially this can be used as a tool to serve up everything -- botnets, key loggers. Visually, you can't differentiate this from your regular YouTube page, it is done so well."

While some computer users might be able to spy something unusual about the online address, or "URL," of a bogus page, the safest thing to do is not trust links and instead go directly to YouTube for recommended videos. - AFP and Yahoo News

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