20 Mar 2001
Computer users have little to fear from Injustice worm
Sophos, a world leader in corporate anti-virus protection, has
advised computer users that there is no need to panic following
reports of the latest email-aware computer worm. So far Sophos has
received just a single report of the worm in the wild, but - as it
is self-replicating and has the potential to spread quickly - users
are advised to be cautious of suspicious looking emails and to
ensure they have up-to-date anti-virus protection.
The Injustice worm (also known as VBS/Staple-A), sees virus
writing activities turn away from the sex appeal of Anna Kournikova
to the battlefield of international politics. When activated the
worm (which carries the subject line 'RE:Injustice') opens a number
of pro-Palestinian websites and displays a message box entitled
'HELP US TO STOP THE BLOOD SHED!!', before describing the alleged
murder of a 12 year-old Palestinian child at the hands of Israeli
soldiers. In addition, the worm automatically sends itself to the
first 50 contacts in the user's Outlook address book as well to 25
Israeli-based email addresses.
"I guess you could call this information warfare," said Graham
Cluley, senior technology consultant for Sophos Anti-Virus.
"Viruses containing political messages are nothing new, but here we
see a virus which attempts to bombard email addresses in Israel. If
this virus becomes widespread the barrage of email may become more
than a nuisance."
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.