Basic Soldering Guide by Alan Winstanley.pdf.exe – Torrent Malware warning

It’s come to my attention that a pirated copy containing malware is starting to circulate in the Torrent network. As always, this is fuelled by people’s greed, fools trying to download something for nothing and coming unstuck in the process.

A phony copy of my book has been disguised as a PDF but it's actually a small executable (.exe or program) file called The Basic Soldering Guide - Alan Winstanley.pdf.exe. I have nothing to do with this file. It points to an illegal, pirated version of my original ebook, presumably hacked from Kindle. The .exe tacked onto the end should immediately cause alarm bells to ring. When you try to fetch this file for ‘free’ from Torrent websites, it tries to drop a suspiciously small .exe onto your system that will then install Malware, tricking you into thinking that it’s installing a pirated PDF.

Torrent malware tries to drop this small "PDF" as an executable program file [click to see]It should not be run under any circumstances or it will install harmful malware onto your system that may prove very difficult to get rid of, or could cause permanent damage.

Downloads folder (IE11) shows filename and signatory [click to see]A programmer named as Yuriy Drachev has been associated with this malware. That name also popped up when I analysed the .exe – see screenshot above. It is possible the name is false or spoofed but see FreeFixer which identified the same issue at  http://www.freefixer.com/b/yuriy-drachev-virustotal-detects-the-download-as-multiplug/

and Herd Protect  http://www.herdprotect.com/.pdf.exe-6a2826f148db59af2f210c66facf85642fbe5b0a.aspx

The good news is that Kindle sales of my 'BSG' are higher than ever. The only way to get a clean, malware-free copy of the Basic Soldering Guide by Alan Winstanley is via your local Amazon site. A hardcopy paperback is also on sale, and a spiral-wirewound layflat version for education and benchwork is sold on Magcloud.

Don’t be fooled by innocent-looking files fetched from the dark web. Some downloads and file attachments could even destroy your system completely – such as the deadly Rombertik virus that arrives in a small screensaver (.scr) file but will try to smash your hard disk MBR and render your PC useless.  See Cisco’s log at http://blogs.cisco.com/security/talos/rombertik if you don't believe this.