Sophos technical support is reporting a significant number of
calls from customers affected by the W32/Sircam-A worm.
"This worm is particularly damaging for businesses because of
its ability to leak confidential information. The worm is capable
of "scooping up" documents and spreadsheets from your hard drive
and forwarding them to everyone in your address book," said Graham
Cluley, senior technology consultant for Sophos Anti-Virus. "The
message is simple - keep your anti-virus software up to date and be
wary of all unsolicited attachments. If you don't need it or aren't
expecting it, don't launch or open it."
The Sircam worm, unlike many other email-aware viruses, uses its
own SMTP routine and so does not rely on Microsoft Outlook to
spread itself via email. It can also spread via open network
shares.
Sophos issued an IDE update to protect against W32/Sircam-A on
18 July 2001. Sophos recommends users subscribe to its free notification
service regarding new viruses found in the wild.
Please note: Because the virus can spread itself using
the .EXE, .COM, .LNK, .PIF and .BAT file extensions Sophos
technical support recommend users add LNK and BAT to the list of
executable file extensions which Sophos Anti-Virus scans.
Instructions on how to do this are here.
Please also read the Instructions for disinfecting
W32/Sircam-A.
Sophos is headquartered in Boston, US and Oxford, UK. More information is available at www.sophos.com.