Site Exploits Linux Programmer's Death On Rainier To Hawk Malware

File this under, "How low can you go?" A Web site is trying to capitalize on hiker-programmer Eduard Burceag's tragic death on Mount Rainier on Tuesday to hawk malicious software.I was doing a Google search today on Burceag, who by all accounts died trying to protect his wife and a friend from freezing to death after a climbing trip on Rainier went awry.

I wanted to know more about the man, and what sort of background might have informed his heroic actions on that Washington state mountainside.

I came across a site that promised to show video of Burceag, a 31-year-old Seattle-area resident who was director of Linux engineering for communications vendor Active Voice, if I would just click on the link. Immediately, I was redirected to a URL for OnlineScannerXP.com. It hijacked my browser and tried to sell me some malware.

Typically, it wouldn't let me close without first clicking on a link that would have installed this crap on my computer. I had to reboot. A "Whois" search revealed that OnlineScannerXP.com is registered through a private domain service in the Netherlands. That's not surprising -- the cowards that perpetrate these scams never can stand a little daylight.

The original site I landed on before getting redirected used the domain name kuprin.blogtocash.com. Blog To Cash, it turns out, is a Web network that offers "free online publicity while making money." A little more checking showed that Blog To Cash is operated by an outfit in Florida called Quadrant -- In Touch Marketing.

I called up the company's chairman, Bob Cefail, to ask why he's allowing a member of his network to exploit the death of an honest programmer, an immigrant from Romania who came to this country for a better life and died a hero on top of one of its highest peaks, to sell malware.

So far, Cefail hasn't called me back.