day late
money? whats that?
"Saddam dead" claims new worm
February 3, 2005
Claire Woffenden
A new computer worm claims to offer photographic evidence that Saddam Hussein has been killed and Osama Bin Laden has been captured.
Anti-virus experts have warned computer users that attempting to open the fake images will lead to an infected PC.
The Bobax-H worm spreads both via email and using a Microsoft security hole that was first reported back in April 2004 and has been previously exploited by the infamous Sasser worm.
It tries to send itself onto other email addresses and vulnerable computers, attempts to stop anti-virus and security software from working and install an email relay module that external hackers can use to send spam.
Emails generated by Bobax-H use a number of different message texts including: "Saddam Hussein - Attempted Escape, Shot dead. Attached some pics that i found". Other variations also claim to contain pictures of a captured Osama Bin Laden.
Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant at Sophos, said: "Many people these days use the internet to keep abreast of the latest breaking news stories - it is these individuals that worms like Bobax-H are trying to infect. People who launch unsolicited attachments without thinking are walking straight into the hands of malicious virus writers and spamming gangs."
"There's really no excuse for computers still to be suffering from this Microsoft security vulnerability 10 months after a fix was first made available, as so many major viruses have tried to take advantage of it."
It's not the first time virus writers have used public figures to lure in victims. Political figures including Margaret Thatcher, Ronald Reagan and George W Bush have previously been linked to worms, as has footy star David Beckham.
http://www.webuser.co.uk/news/61227.html?aff=rss
February 3, 2005
Claire Woffenden
A new computer worm claims to offer photographic evidence that Saddam Hussein has been killed and Osama Bin Laden has been captured.
Anti-virus experts have warned computer users that attempting to open the fake images will lead to an infected PC.
The Bobax-H worm spreads both via email and using a Microsoft security hole that was first reported back in April 2004 and has been previously exploited by the infamous Sasser worm.
It tries to send itself onto other email addresses and vulnerable computers, attempts to stop anti-virus and security software from working and install an email relay module that external hackers can use to send spam.
Emails generated by Bobax-H use a number of different message texts including: "Saddam Hussein - Attempted Escape, Shot dead. Attached some pics that i found". Other variations also claim to contain pictures of a captured Osama Bin Laden.
Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant at Sophos, said: "Many people these days use the internet to keep abreast of the latest breaking news stories - it is these individuals that worms like Bobax-H are trying to infect. People who launch unsolicited attachments without thinking are walking straight into the hands of malicious virus writers and spamming gangs."
"There's really no excuse for computers still to be suffering from this Microsoft security vulnerability 10 months after a fix was first made available, as so many major viruses have tried to take advantage of it."
It's not the first time virus writers have used public figures to lure in victims. Political figures including Margaret Thatcher, Ronald Reagan and George W Bush have previously been linked to worms, as has footy star David Beckham.
http://www.webuser.co.uk/news/61227.html?aff=rss