Beware The Pre-Valentine Love Bug
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Looking for love on the Internet may be a good idea, just don’t get bitten by any malicious computer bugs by opening any love related e-mails sent to you by an anonymous lover.

Sophos is warning users of a widespread e-mail posing as a message of love in an attempt to install malicious codes to your computer. The company says that the people behind the Dorf Trojan has deliberately spammed out a romantic e-mail campaign, luring unsuspecting computer users to dangerous websites.

Senior Technology Consultant at Sophos, Graham Cluley said, “This heart attack has been spammed out on a huge scale by an organised gang hell-bent on stealing access to your PC for criminal purposes. It seems the hackers were too impatient to wait for St. Valentine’s Day this year before plucking on heart strings in their attempt to infect the unwary. People will be truly love sick if they let the malicious code run on their PC.”

Subject lines used in the attack are many and varied but all pose as a romantic message. Some of them include “Falling In Love with You”, “Special Romance”, “You’re In My Thoughts”, “Sent with Love”, “Our Love Will Last”, “Our Love is Strong”, “Your Love Has Opened”, “You’re the One”, “A Toast My Love” and “Heavenly Love”.

 

The body of the email contains a link to an IP address-based website, which is actually one of the many compromised PCs in the Storm botnet. The website displays a large red heart, while installing malware onto the users PC. The company believes that the worm code is designed to attempt to download further malicious code from the internet designed to take over the PC, convert it into part of a zombie network, and use it to send spam on behalf of hacking gangs.

“Your PC and the data on it is precious, and it needs to be protected. No one should be blinded by an unexpected romantic message into clicking on links to unknown websites. The best defense is common sense, combined with up-to-date anti-virus software and spam protection at your gateway,” added Cluley.

See: www.sophos.com.au