Sophos, a world leader in corporate anti-virus protection, is
warning users to beware of the Goner worm (W32/Goner-A). First
detected on 4 December, 2001, Sophos has already received a
significant amount of calls from infected users.
The email arrives with the subject line 'Hi' and carries an
infected attachment called GONE.SCR, posing as a screensaver. Once
activated, the worm spreads to all contacts in the user's Outlook
address book.
"This worm highlights the importance of being suspicious about
anything that arrives unexpectedly in your inbox," said Graham
Cluley, senior technology consultant for Sophos Anti-Virus. "Worms
like these are wolves in sheep's clothing. Posing as innocent
games, pictures or screensavers, they are in fact much more
sinister. Even if the email appears to have come from a friend, it
still should not be automatically trusted."
Once activated, the worm attempts to disable a number of
different anti-virus products from the infected computer by
deleting files from the installation directory. Sophos is urging
computer users to update their anti-virus protection now and be
wary of all emails containing unsolicited attachments.
Sophos has issued protection against this worm.
Sophos is headquartered in Boston, US and Oxford, UK. More information is available at www.sophos.com.