It is well known that virus authors have used sex as a method of
enticing unsuspecting users to be infected by malware. Examples
include VBS/SST-A
which purported to be a graphic of the glamorous Russian tennis
player Anna Kournikova and VBS/LoveLet-A (also
known as the Love Bug) which pretended to be a love letter from a
friend or colleague.
Virus authors have seen the success these viruses have
experienced in spreading around the world and been inspired to use
similar techniques to spread their malicious code around the globe,
with varying levels of success.
However, the Surnova worm uses a slightly different trick. As
well as using the tried-and-trusted technique of "celebrity
endorsement" (on occasion it uses filenames which claim to be
erotic movies of the singers Britney Spears, Christian Aguilera and
Jennifer Lopez) it also attempts to appeal to game console
fans.
Amongst the many filenames the Surnova worm can use to entice
people into running it are XBOX emulator (WORKS!!).exe and
Gamecube Emulator (WORKS!!).exe.
"Fans of Halo or Pikmin may be tempted to try one of these
programs in an attempt to convert their PC into a Microsoft Xbox or
a Nintendo GameCube," said Graham Cluley, senior technology
consultant for Sophos Anti-Virus. "However, some things really are
too good to be true. Users should be suspicious of unknown
executable files, and never bring unauthorised programs into their
organisation."
Sophos recommends users sign up for automatic notification of new virus
threats via email, keep their virus protection up-to-date and
practise safe computing to help avoid
virus infection.
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.
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