08 Feb 2001
Herbie rides again - but Sophos says Italian lingo will limit this Love Bug's journey
 |
| The virus sends emails in Italian. |
Sophos, a world leader in corporate anti-virus protection, has
warned users to be wary of unexpected emails from their friends
speaking Italian. A new variant of the infamous Love Bug virus,
VBS/LoveLet-CD
(also known as Cartolina), has been reported in the wild, but
Sophos expects that it will not spread far due to its use of
Italian phrases.
"Cartolina is another reminder that users should be cautious of
all e-mail attachments, even when they know who the sender is,"
said Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant at Sophos. "Think
before you click - ask yourself 'why is Ken from Walsall writing to
me in Italian?'. Despite the Italians' amorous reputation, this is
one Latin love letter users should avoid."
The VBS/LoveLet-CD virus is a variation of the Love Bug which
struck last May. It spreads by copying itself to everyone in the
infected user's address book. The virus arrives with the subject
line "c'e una cartolina per te", Italian for "here is a postcard
for you". However, as it does not use English language, Sophos
predicts it is extremely unlikely to have a similar impact to the
original Love Bug outbreak of May 2000.
Sophos customers who have kept their anti-virus software
up-to-date are automatically protected against VBS/LoveLet-CD.
Users of other anti-virus products are recommended to update their
software.
About Sophos
More than 100 million users in 150 countries rely on Sophos as the best protection against complex threats and data loss. Sophos is committed to providing security and data protection solutions that are simple to manage, deploy and use and that deliver the industry's lowest total cost of ownership. Sophos offers award-winning encryption, endpoint security, web, email, and network access control solutions backed by SophosLabs - a global network of threat intelligence centers. With more than two decades of experience, Sophos is regarded as a leader in security and data protection by top analyst firms and has received many industry awards.
Sophos is headquartered in Boston, US and Oxford, UK. More information is available at www.sophos.com.