Worm lures Internet users with false news
Worm lures Internet users with false news
Internet users alarmed over news of Michael Jackson's death or darkconspiracies behind the demise of Pope John Paul II should perhaps
just be worried that they received another new e-mail worm.
Researchers at security firm Sophos Tuesday warned of the spread of
the Kedebe-F e-mail worm, which carries a variety of subject headers
and messages touting breaking news. However, users who click on the
attached file could have their security software and firewall
disabled, according to Sophos.
Possible messages include "someone sent me this document which is
stolen from a secret government body ... about John Paul's death."
Other messages try to entice recipients into opening the attached file
by claiming Michael Jackson has died, Osama bin Laden has been
captured by U.S. soldiers or the MyDoom e-mail worm author has been
arrested by Microsoft, Sophos said.
Using supposed "breaking news" to persuade users to open a message and
click on an attachment is a long -favored method among virus writers,
according to Sophos Senior Technology Consultant Graham Cluley.
"This is a fairly common trick. It doesn't take Albert Einstein to
think this one up," Cluley said.
Although the worm is currently slow-spreading Cluley flagged it as an
example of the kinds of social-engineered threats that users should
watch out for.
The worm spreads via e-mail or peer-to-peer file sharing networks. It
appears to be targeted at both news hounds and geeks, with mentions of
the MyDoom worm, Cluley said. Also, it spreads on peer-to-peer
networks by copying itself to the directory for sharing information on
the server, purporting to be source code for the Sasser worm.
Users are advised to update their anti-virus software against the
threat.
