Experts at SophosLabs™, Sophos's global network of virus and
spam analysis centres, have warned users to be wary of emails
containing references to Paris Hilton after two different worms
have been discovered claiming to contain hardcore footage of the
society heiress.
The W32/Sober-K
and W32/Ahker-C
worms can masquerade as x-rated videos of the popular
celebrity.
The W32/Sober-K worm, which is spreading in the wild, bulk mails
itself using a variety of different subject lines including "Paris
Hilton, pure!" and "Paris Hilton SexVideos". It can send itself in
either German or English language, depending on whether it believes
the recipient's email address to be owned by a German or English
speaker.
The W32/Ahker-C worm sends itself using the subject line "Paris
Hilton...download it!" and an attached file called "ParisXXX.zip".
The worm attempts to disable anti-virus and firewall software
running on the computer, and blocks access to a number of websites,
potentially opening up the PC to further attack by hackers and
malware.
"It's an old trick but sadly it still often works - disguise
your worm as hardcore porn and there are likely to be some computer
users who will throw common sense out of the window and launch the
dangerous file," said Graham Cluley, senior
technology consultant for Sophos. "Those looking for the simple
life, without the trouble of viruses and worms, would be wise to be
wary of unsolicited email attachments."
Sophos experts have discovered the worms on the same day that it
was reported that hackers have broken into Miss
Hilton's mobile phone address book, and published the private
telephone numbers for celebrities such as Anna Kournikova, Lindsay
Lohan and Vin Diesel.
"Paris Hilton is, according to some search engine companies, the
most commonly searched for female celebrity on the internet.
Interest in her is huge, so it's no surprise that virus writers
have tried to use her as bait," continued Cluley.
Curiously, the W32/Derdero-A worm,
which was also discovered today, can send itself using a variety of
email subject lines including "AHKER.C Alert".
Sophos recommends companies protect their email gateways with a
consolidated solution to defend against
viruses and spam. Businesses should also secure their desktop and
servers with automatically updated 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.