24 Nov 2004
Italian senate hit by gay porn worm attack, Sophos comments
Rbot worm allows hackers into compromised computers via a
backdoor
Sophos, a world leader in protecting businesses against viruses
and spam, has reminded organisations to ensure appropriate network
security defences are in place as reports of the Italian senate
being disrupted by hackers have appeared in the media.
According to media reports, the Italian senate in Rome was
ground to a halt as it was hit by one of the many variants of the
Rbot worm. The worm allowed hackers to display hardcore homosexual
pornography on monitors around the organisation. First noticed on
Monday night, computers in the senate chamber, and every senator's
office, were said to have been affected by Tuesday morning.
The Rbot family of worms includes backdoor functionality which
allows remote hackers to gain access to infected computers, steal
information and even - in some cases - monitor computer users via
their webcams.
Sophos recommends companies protect their computers 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.
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 complete security solutions that are simple to deploy, manage, and use and that deliver the industry's lowest total cost of ownership. Sophos offers award-winning encryption, endpoint security, web, email, mobile and network security solutions backed by SophosLabs - a global network of threat intelligence centers.
Sophos is headquartered in Boston, US and Oxford, UK. More information is available at www.sophos.com.