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| The MyDoom-S worm poses as a collection of funny
photographs. |
Worm attempts to open backdoor to allow hackers access to
infected computers
Experts at Sophos have warned users to be wary of unsolicited
emails claiming to contain funny photographs, after the latest
variant of the MyDoom worm (W32/MyDoom-S) was spammed
to internet users around the world. If innocent computer users open
the email attachment they run the risk of the worm opening a
backdoor which will allow hackers to gain remote access to the
PC.
The MyDoom-S worm (also known as Ratos) arrives in an email with
the following characteristics:
Subject line: photos
Message text: LOL!;))))
Attached file: photos_arc.exe
"Companies should educate their users to practise safe computing - that includes never
opening unsolicited email attachments and discouraging the sending
and receiving of joke files and funny photographs and
screensavers," said Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant for
Sophos. "This worm feeds on people's habit to willingly accept
'humorous' content on their desktop computer, but they could be
putting their entire company's data at risk."
Sophos issued protection against the W32/MyDoom-S worm at 06:43
GMT on 16 August 2004. Customers using Enterprise Manager, PureMessage or the Sophos small business solutions
were automatically protected at their next scheduled update.
Sophos recommends companies protect their email with a consolidated solution to thwart the virus and spam
threats as well as secure their desktop and servers with
automatically updated anti-virus protection.
"All companies should consider blocking executable content from
the outside world at the email gateway," continued Cluley.
Sophos reminds the internet community that both Microsoft and
SCO have issued substantial rewards totalling $500,000 for
information which leads to the successful conviction of those
behind the MyDoom worm.
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.