http://www.msnbc.com/news/826033.asp
Sneaky e-card installs porn "worm"
By Bob Sullivan
MSNBC
Oct. 25 -- It's part spam, part pop-up porn ad software, part computer virus, part e-greeting card -- but a complete nuisance. Internet users are starting to complain to their anti-virus providers about a suspicious e-mail making the rounds that purports to be a harmless electronic greeting card. But trying to pick up the card has severe consequences: a copy of the e-card e-mail is sent to everyone in the recipient's Outlook e-mail address book, similar to the worm-like behavior of the Melissa virus or the LoveBug. The incident highlights a disturbing trend: spam advertisers taking up tactics used by virus writers.
INTERNET USERS WHO receive an e-card in the next few weeks might want to think twice before opening it. A new kind of e-card, which requires installation of spam-generating software called Cytron, is making its way around the Internet. If you try to view a Cytron enabled e-card, you are likely to pester friends, family, and co-workers with e-mail and inadvertently send them toward porn Web sites.
The Cytron e-card arrives with a harmless-sounding, personalized subject line: '(Recipient) you have an e-card from (sender)."
The message includes another personalized greeting, "(Recipient) I sent you a greeting card. Please pick it up."
Then there is a simple link to Friendgreetings.com, which might sound like a normal electronic greeting card Web site.
But users who click on the link and agree to install Cytron find their computer is hijacked and used to send out similar greeting card e-mails to everyone in the recipient's Outlook address book. Later, they are treated to a small deluge of pop-up ads for porn sites.
The Cytron e-greeting has been making the rounds for at least a week, but complaints started pouring in to anti-virus companies Thursday, and most issued some kind of warning late in the day.
"We've gotten a few hundred calls over the last two days," said Chris Wraight, technology consultant for Sophos. Trend Micro indicated it had received reports of 90 infections so far.
the rest of the story is at the link above
thought y'all ought to know so we don't get endless yammering next week about it.
Sneaky e-card installs porn "worm"
By Bob Sullivan
MSNBC
Oct. 25 -- It's part spam, part pop-up porn ad software, part computer virus, part e-greeting card -- but a complete nuisance. Internet users are starting to complain to their anti-virus providers about a suspicious e-mail making the rounds that purports to be a harmless electronic greeting card. But trying to pick up the card has severe consequences: a copy of the e-card e-mail is sent to everyone in the recipient's Outlook e-mail address book, similar to the worm-like behavior of the Melissa virus or the LoveBug. The incident highlights a disturbing trend: spam advertisers taking up tactics used by virus writers.
INTERNET USERS WHO receive an e-card in the next few weeks might want to think twice before opening it. A new kind of e-card, which requires installation of spam-generating software called Cytron, is making its way around the Internet. If you try to view a Cytron enabled e-card, you are likely to pester friends, family, and co-workers with e-mail and inadvertently send them toward porn Web sites.
The Cytron e-card arrives with a harmless-sounding, personalized subject line: '(Recipient) you have an e-card from (sender)."
The message includes another personalized greeting, "(Recipient) I sent you a greeting card. Please pick it up."
Then there is a simple link to Friendgreetings.com, which might sound like a normal electronic greeting card Web site.
But users who click on the link and agree to install Cytron find their computer is hijacked and used to send out similar greeting card e-mails to everyone in the recipient's Outlook address book. Later, they are treated to a small deluge of pop-up ads for porn sites.
The Cytron e-greeting has been making the rounds for at least a week, but complaints started pouring in to anti-virus companies Thursday, and most issued some kind of warning late in the day.
"We've gotten a few hundred calls over the last two days," said Chris Wraight, technology consultant for Sophos. Trend Micro indicated it had received reports of 90 infections so far.
the rest of the story is at the link above
thought y'all ought to know so we don't get endless yammering next week about it.
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