KillerMuffin
Seraphically Disinclined
- Joined
- Jul 29, 2000
- Posts
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http://www.reuters.com/news_article.jhtml?type=internetnews&StoryID=550702
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - A new computer bug that tries to trick computer users into clicking on a virus-infected Web link masquerading as party photos emerged in Asia on Monday and began spreading to Europe and North America, computer experts said.
The "My Party" worm, which is not considered destructive, spreads by infiltrating popular e-mail software Microsoft Windows Address Book and Outlook Express Database.
The worm e-mails itself to every person in an infected users' e-mail log, making it look as if the worm comes from a colleague or friend, experts said.
The worm is believed to have originated in Russia because it does not infect computers using keyboards with Cyrillic or Russian characters and, when it infects a new machine, it sends an e-mail to a Russian free e-mail account, according to Mikko Hypponen, manager of antivirus research at Finnish-based F-Secure.
The worm, which was first spotted in Singapore, will stop spreading on Wednesday because it was written to spread only between Jan. 25 and Jan. 29, Hypponen added.
It installs a backdoor that downloads commands from a Web site hosted by a U.S.-based Internet service provider, but the commands are benign at this point, he said. Officials are attempting to get the ISP to shut down the Web site, he added.
"I'm pretty sure it's a teenager in Russia doing this," Hypponen said.
(There's more to the story, click the link for it)
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - A new computer bug that tries to trick computer users into clicking on a virus-infected Web link masquerading as party photos emerged in Asia on Monday and began spreading to Europe and North America, computer experts said.
The "My Party" worm, which is not considered destructive, spreads by infiltrating popular e-mail software Microsoft Windows Address Book and Outlook Express Database.
The worm e-mails itself to every person in an infected users' e-mail log, making it look as if the worm comes from a colleague or friend, experts said.
The worm is believed to have originated in Russia because it does not infect computers using keyboards with Cyrillic or Russian characters and, when it infects a new machine, it sends an e-mail to a Russian free e-mail account, according to Mikko Hypponen, manager of antivirus research at Finnish-based F-Secure.
The worm, which was first spotted in Singapore, will stop spreading on Wednesday because it was written to spread only between Jan. 25 and Jan. 29, Hypponen added.
It installs a backdoor that downloads commands from a Web site hosted by a U.S.-based Internet service provider, but the commands are benign at this point, he said. Officials are attempting to get the ISP to shut down the Web site, he added.
"I'm pretty sure it's a teenager in Russia doing this," Hypponen said.
(There's more to the story, click the link for it)
