The Trojan has been spammed out to internet users.
Experts at SophosLabs™, Sophos's global
network of virus, spyware and spam analysis centers, have warned of
a Trojan horse that has been spammed out to email addresses
disguised as a message claiming that George W Bush and Tony Blair
are conspiring with oil companies to push up petrol prices.
Other disguises being used by the hackers to distribute the
Trojan horse include news reports that Osama Bin Laden has been
killed or Michael Jackson has committed suicide, CCTV photos of an
alleged university rapist, and requests for a photograph to be
approved for a magazine.
The Troj/Stinx-W Trojan horse
has been spammed out in email messages, which can have a variety of
subject lines including "Petrol Price Conspiracy", "Campus Student
Raped", or "Bush and Blair Conspire". A typical email reads as
follows:
Dear colleagues and friends
We are circulating an attachment proving the major oil
companies are working closely with certain politicians (as can be
seen in the attached photo) to keep petrol prices at an all time
high.
After a year of rising prices it is the public that are now
bearing the cost of the fall out in the Middle East. Do you think
this is fair? Bush and Blair can be seen shaking hands with the
president of BP and Texaco after a hush hush meeting. The attached
article shows that Bush and Blair know that high petrol prices
drives Barrel prices up-words and so in turn increases the value of
stockpiled oil. This is hiding the costs of the recent and on-going
troubles in the Middle East and is a ploy to keep the current
Governments confidence rating high in the public eye.
Do not be fooled by figures!
Regards,
Steve Grey
Editor
www.petrolprices.com
Please forward this on to anyone you think may be
interested.
"Launching the attached file will not show you any evidence of
politicans conspiring with oil companies, but instead open a gaping
hole in the security of your PC," said Graham Cluley, senior
technology consultant at Sophos. "Hackers are exploiting the
public's interest in politics and breaking news to spread malware.
Anyone unfortunate enough to run this program is running the risk
of allowing hackers to gain access to their computer to spy, steal
and cause havoc."
Sophos recommends that all computer users should ensure that
they are running an anti-virus product which is configured to
automatically update itself, security patches and firewall
software.
"This latest version of the Stinx Trojan horse reminds business
that keeping anti-virus software up-to-date is a must," continued
Cluley. "Regular anti-malware updates combined with sensible safe
computing policies and strong email policy at the gateway reduces
the risk of threats like this to a minimum."
Sophos recommends that companies protect their email gateways
with a consolidated solution to defend
against viruses, spyware and spam, as well as apply an email policy
that filters unsolicited executable code at the gateway. Businesses
should also secure their desktop and servers with automatically
updated protection.
Sophos's anti-virus products were automatically updated to
protect against the Troj/Stinx-N Trojan horse at 10:36 GMT on 16
June 2006.
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.