Digital Trends

Hackers have hijacked Home Simpson's supposed e-mail address and are using it to spread a Trojan that makes the unwary part of a botnet.

Back in 2003, an episode of animated comedy show The Simpsons revealed that Homer Simpson’s e-mail address was chunkylover53@aol.com – an address that was actually registered by one of the show’s writers. Plenty of people added Chunkylover53 to their AIM buddy list – although the name remained very dormant.

Now the name is being used again – but this time it’s spreading a Trojan.

On AIM, Chunkylover53 – which is not related to the e-mail address – has a new away message, promising those who click on the link an exclusive Internet-only episode of The Simpsons. In fact, the executable file is kimya.exe, which infects the computer with a Trojan and makes the machine part of a botnet. The work is the bay of a Turkish hacking group.

D’oh.

In a blog, Christopher Boyd of Face Time Security Labs writes:

"We've reported all links related to this attack, and at least two of the files claiming to be ‘exclusive Simpsons episodes’ are currently offline, though there's bound to be more out there. For now, this is a good reminder to be cautious when randomly adding cool things seen on TV and film to your online applications - you can't always assume the person at the other end is entirely in control, or indeed, related to what you're looking for in the first place."