08 Dec 2004
Trojan horse poses as controversial Lycos Europe anti-spam screensaver, Sophos reports
 |
| Lycos Europe's screensaver has been withdrawn -
but hackers have distributed a Trojan horse posing as the
controversial code. |
Anti-virus experts at Sophos have warned users to be wary of
emails purporting to contain the controversial Lycos Europe "Make
love not spam" screensaver, after a malicious Trojan horse was seen
being distributed across the internet.
The Troj/Mdrop-IT Trojan
horse has been sighted in emails sent with the following
characteristics:
Subject:Be the first to fight spam with Lycos screen
saverAttached file:Lycos screensaver to fight spam.zipOne of the files contained inside the Zip archive file is a
keylogger which can send messages to an Indonesian email address.
The screensaver file, rather than displaying the controversial
Lycos Europe screensaver which tried to swamp spammers' websites
with internet traffic, displays a blank screen.
"The heated debate about whether it was appropriate for a
screensaver to generate internet traffic has been watched with
interest by many internet users. Some may be tempted to see what
all the fuss was about, and lower their guard if they receive an
email such as this, which will be walking straight into a hacker's
trap," said Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant for Sophos.
"The Lycos Europe screensaver was always a phenomenally bad idea,
and we're pleased to see it has now been withdrawn. However, all
users must resist the urge to open unsolicited email attachments
such as this new Trojan horse."
Sophos recommends companies protect themselves with a consolidated solution which can defend them from
the threats of both spam and viruses.
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.