Researchers at Sophos, a world leader in protecting businesses
against viruses and spam, have advised users about the new W32/Zafi-A worm which, if
run, will display a political message on 1 May calling for
Hungarian patriotism.
The worm's message is timed to coincide with the date that
Hungary joins the European Union and, when executed, displays the
following (translated) text:
People! Hundreds of thousands, millions of
Hungarian people live day to day and die from starvation, thirst
and poverty in our country. This is while many villainous MPs make
millions, and don't even think about what is happening to us.
Puppets are in control. They increase our salaries while
doubling our taxes. They talk about justice while their laws
protect criminals. They rather waste money on Formula 1 while
homeless people die on the streets every day and patients suffer in
hospitals without the proper equipment.
Why - why can nobody see this??? Why isn't there a true
Hungarian patriot, who puts solving the severe problems of this
country ahead his own benefits!!! It is not enough just to want, to
talk, or to give speeches about the good and the nice. There must
be action. Something must be done by everybody and for
everybody!
"This is not the first time that viruses have been used to
propagate political messages," said Carole Theriault, security
consultant, Sophos. "Previous worms have attacked world leaders
such as Bill Clinton
and last year the Quaters worm attacked Tony
Blair's policy on immigration. The author of this worm clearly
feels he or she has an important point to make, but doing it at the
expense of computer users isn't a sensible move."
Sophos reports that the Zafi worm will spread only to Hungarian
email addresses, but reminds users that a safe computing policy and
up-to-date anti-virus software will nullify the risk of
infection.
Sophos is headquartered in Boston, US and Oxford, UK. More information is available at www.sophos.com.