27 Feb 2004
Janet Jackson's Superbowl wardrobe malfunction inspires new virus, Sophos comments
 |
| Janet Jackson and Justin Timberlake, in happier
pre-'wardrobe malfunction' times |
Anti-virus researchers at Sophos have discovered a new worm,
Synpapse (W32/Synpapse-A), which
masquerades as seedy snaps and movies of female celebrities. The
worm uses a number of filenames, including 'Janet Jackson Superbowl
XXX', in order to dupe computer users into opening the malicious
code. The worm spreads via instant messaging and by popular file
sharing platforms such as KaZaA.
"I'm afraid that computer users clicking on this file are much
more likely to see a computer, rather than wardrobe, malfunction,"
said Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant, Sophos. "One of
the cyber-underground's favourite tricks is to disguise their
viruses as tantalising photos of celebs in the news - Janet Jackson
is the latest star to join this dubious hall of fame, which already
boasts the likes of Britney, Kylie and J-Lo."
Other celebrity names used by the worm include Paris Hilton,
Christina Aguilera, Beyonce and Pamela Anderson
At time of writing, Sophos has seen no reports of this worm
spreading in the wild, but nevertheless reminds users to stay
vigilant against virus attack.
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.