Virus spreads through MSN sex
MSN chatters beware: There is a worm hiding inside that
sexy attachment you just received from your MSN contact. In
fact, the worm has tricked you into believing that your
contact sent it. Stay on alert.
BY A CORRESPONDENT
Having a hot time on MSN? Looking for
webcams and sex on chat? Trouble is on the way! A new worm is
out targetting the MSN chatting community. The W32.Bropia worm
transmits across MSN users, where it comes as an attached file
under filenames like Drunk_lol.pif", "Webcam_004.pif", "sexy_bedroom.pif",
"naked_party.pif" or "love_me.pif. The worm downloads itself
into the chatter's machine as he/she opens the attachment. The
185-KB file shows a featherless turkey on opening and infects
the machine.
Bropia worm disables mouse right
button, slows down the computer and changes the volume
settings of the computer. Once the MSN messenger client has
been infected, Bropia sends a copy of itself to all one's
messenger contacts.
Bropia then downloads a Trojan which
gives access to the PC in order to collect the PC user's
keystrokes and then send pornographic instant message spam.
The Bropia virus first appeared on the
Net in September 2004. This is the sixth mutation of the
W32.Bropia virus. The latest variant is deadlier than the
previous incarnation. Thousands of PCs were reportedly
affected in Taiwan, China, Korea and Japan by Friday morning.
South Korea was the first to be by the
W32.Bropia, which soon spread to Japan, Taiwan and mainland
China. Europe and the United States reported less damage.
In Taiwan, Microsoft urged MSN users
who received the attached worm to check with the contact
wither he or she really sent a file. "Otherwise just delete
it," Microsoft Taiwan said.
Those infected with the new Bropia
variant should close MSN immediately and download a patch from
Symantec or Trend Micro. After downloading the patch, it
should be run against all execution files in hard drives, and
the PC rebooted.
Trend Micro has a free download site
at
http://www.trendmicro.com.tw/tool.htm.
MSN Messenger is the most popular
instant messaging applications in the world. Many corporations
even use it as their in-house communication tool due to its
ease of use.
Trend Micro has issued a "medium risk"
alert for Bropia, to raise awareness of this worm that spreads
via MSN Messenger.
Danish security watchdog Secunia has
issued a "medium" alert over the newly-discovered Bropia worm,
warning that it is spreading fast via MSN Messenger. The spybot
is particularly damaging, Secunia warned. It hunts out Windows
identity keys and certain application activation codes and
feeds the information to the sender via Internet Relay Chat
(IRC).
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