Experts at SophosLabs™, Sophos's global
network of virus, spyware and spam analysis centers, have warned
users about a new virus that infects Excel files under the
camouflage of a fantasy football worksheet.
XF97/Yagnuul-A is an
Excel formula virus that infects .XLS spreadsheets, dropping an
infected file that helps workers create their own fantasy football
league with other fans of the English Premiership. The Premiership
is a football league made up of the best soccer teams in England,
and has millions of followers based around the globe.
The virus drops an infected fantasy football
league spreadsheet.
"Fantasy football-like leagues have been set up in offices
across the country, and fans often keep track of how well they are
doing by using Excel spreadsheets. Every computer user needs to
take great care not to fall foul of malware like the Yagnuul virus
or they will find themselves paying the penalty," said Graham Cluley, senior
technology consultant for Sophos. "This is a virus of two halves -
one part infects your existing Excel spreadsheets, while the other
drops an infected fantasy league file onto your drive. You may
think you are just re-using someone else's harmless spreadsheet,
but behind the scenes a virus may be preparing to strike."
Fantasy football is a popular pastime in many offices, where
football fans select their own team of soccer players and
accumulate points based upon their real-life performance.
Sophos experts reported last
week on a Trojan horse that has been spammed out, posing as a
wallchart for the upcoming World Cup tournament in Germany.
Companies are recommended to protect their email with a consolidated solution to thwart the virus, spyware
and spam threats and secure their desktops 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.