New virus masquerades as news headlines
Posted: Sat Jan 22, 2005 10:44 am
http://www.cnn.com/2005/TECH/internet/01/2...ection=cnn_tech
Researchers have identified a new computer virus that masquerades as news headlines from CNN's Web site.
Sophos, an anti-virus firm, says the virus -- identified as Crowt-A -- pulls headlines, subject lines and other content from CNN.com. Once opened, the virus can then scan the user's address book and try to email itself to those users.
The virus' subject line and attachment share the same name, Sophos researchers say, but change continually to match headlines from CNN.com's home page.
"Virus writers are always looking for new tricks to entice innocent computer users into running their malicious code," Carole Theriault, security consultant at Sophos, said in a statement. "This latest ploy feeds on people's desire for the latest news."
Although the number of PCs possibly infected was not immediately known, Sophos said there has been only a small number of sightings.
In addition to emailing itself to other users, the virus also installs a "backdoor Trojan function," according to Sophos. This function can pick up and send data such as keystrokes to a remote user -- a practice sometimes used by hackers to obtain sensitive information such as passwords.
Archived topic from Anythingforums, old topic ID:1689, old post ID:22691
Researchers have identified a new computer virus that masquerades as news headlines from CNN's Web site.
Sophos, an anti-virus firm, says the virus -- identified as Crowt-A -- pulls headlines, subject lines and other content from CNN.com. Once opened, the virus can then scan the user's address book and try to email itself to those users.
The virus' subject line and attachment share the same name, Sophos researchers say, but change continually to match headlines from CNN.com's home page.
"Virus writers are always looking for new tricks to entice innocent computer users into running their malicious code," Carole Theriault, security consultant at Sophos, said in a statement. "This latest ploy feeds on people's desire for the latest news."
Although the number of PCs possibly infected was not immediately known, Sophos said there has been only a small number of sightings.
In addition to emailing itself to other users, the virus also installs a "backdoor Trojan function," according to Sophos. This function can pick up and send data such as keystrokes to a remote user -- a practice sometimes used by hackers to obtain sensitive information such as passwords.
Archived topic from Anythingforums, old topic ID:1689, old post ID:22691
