e-Mail
Games
Areacodes
Chat
Previous
There's an e-mail worm that recently began to circulate around the Internet called the "W32.Sober.N@
(The worm only infects Windows-based
systems - not Macintosh, Unix, or Linux systems.) Also known as the
W32/Sober.o@MM worm, this new variant of the Sober worm was first discovered on
April 19, 2005, and includes a tricky Trojan horse feature. The text of the
deceptive e-mail message promises the recipient a benefit if he/she opens the
accompanying attachment but something quite different occurs when the attachment
is opened. Below is the exact text of an actual W32.Sober.N@mm e-mail worm currently circulating the Web:
As you can see, the
goal of the worm is to trick you into thinking that the sender has received some
of your private e-mail messages and is simply returning them to you within a
zipped attachment. When you open the attachment, you are infected with the
W32.Sober.N@mm worm. Pretty slick!
The W32.Sober.N@mm worm is a
mass-mailing e-mail worm. Once the attachment is opened, it sends itself as an
attachment to e-mail addresses found within the infected machine. Like most
worms circulating around the Internet, the W32.Sober.N@mm worm also has a
"spoofing" feature that conceals the actual sender of the e-mail message by
randomly selecting e-mail addresses from the infected computer's system to
disguise the source of the e-mail. So, if a person receives this e-mail worm
from a co-worker or relative, chances are that the person it shows being sent
from was probably not the person who actually sent it.
Remember,
receiving an e-mail attachment from a trusted friend or a reliable source may
not necessarily mean that they were the actual senders of the message and
attachment. Also, the ultimate responsibility of protecting your computer
against worms and viruses lies with you. Many viruses and worms not only spread
via e-mail, but also through the sharing of files when using floppy disks, zip
disks, CDs and networks, as well as when downloading software from the Internet.
We encourage each of our users to install and utilize virus-scanning software,
to update this software on a regular basis, and to scan all incoming e-mail
attachments before opening them, even if the attachment shows coming from a
reliable source.
Hits: 167
Added: Mon May 23 2005
Last Modified: Wed Feb 28 2007
