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| Stefanie Sun Yanzi has many fans in Asia. |
Computer virus experts at Sophos have warned computer users of
an email worm which spreads using emails and filenames connected to
Asian popstar, Stefanie Sun Yanzi.
The W32/Yanz-A
worm spreads via email posing as the video or MP3 music file of one
of Sun Yanzi's popular hits.
A typical viral email can use a number of different subject
lines, email bodies and attachment names, including the
following:
Subject:Free MP3
Text:My Favourite is Sun YanZi.
Attached file:Sun_Yanzi_Mp3.zip
Sun Yanzi, who now prefers to be known by her English name of
Stefanie, has released a series of successful albums in Asia with a
mixture of Chinese and English-language songs, including covers of
well known tunes such as "Hey Jude" by the Beatles and "Crazy all
these years" by Tori Amos. In the last few weeks, Singapore-born
Yanzi has released a brand new album and a music video of herself
romantically mooning around Charles de Gaulle airport over a French
male model.
"Stefanie Sun Yanzi isn't as well known in the West as she is in
many Asian countries, which means the worm's choice of celebrity is
limiting its potential to spread," said Graham Cluley, senior
technology consultant for Sophos. "But she does have a keen fan
following, some of whom may not think twice about launching an
email attachment claiming to be connected to their heroine."
Stefanie Sun Yanzi is the latest in a long line of celebrities
to be used as bait by malware authors and hackers. The promise of
glimpses of pin-ups like Halle Berry, Anna Kournikova, Julia Roberts, Jennifer Lopez, Britney Spears or the stars
of 'Sex and the
City' have previously been used to help viruses spread.
However, virus inspiration has come from several other less
glamorous fields. Political leaders such as Margaret Thatcher,
Ronald Reagan, Bill
Clinton, George W Bush and PW Botha join cartoon characters
including Pikachu
and Kyle from
South Park. Even Bill Gates has been used
as the psychological trick to dupe users into opening infected
files.
Although only a small number of instances of the worm have been
sighted so far, 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.
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.