23 Jul 2001
Sircam - are you protected?
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.
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.