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25 May 2007

Shiver me timbers! It's a pirate Trojan

Hackers exploit interest in the movie Pirates of the Caribbean 3

Computer security researchers at SophosLabsâ„¢ are warning computer users about a widely-spammed out email teaser promising a trailer of the film "Pirates of the Caribbean 3" - and the chance of free tickets if you are in North America or Europe.

Rather than a trailer for the blockbuster movie starring Johnny Depp, Keira Knightley and Orlando Bloom, however, the Troj/Yar-A Trojan horse is attached to the email.

The email claims to offer free tickets and a trailer of the movie 'Pirates of the Caribbean 3'
The email claims to offer free tickets and a trailer of the movie 'Pirates of the Caribbean 3: At World's End'.

"Of course, there are no tickets," warns Paul Ducklin, Head of Technology, Asia Pacific, at Sophos. "And there is no film trailer - just a malicious program which tries to download further malware from the internet. Remember: if an email sounds too good to be true, then you can safely assume that it isn't true."

Ducklin reminds users that there is an easy solution to the risks posed by unknown or unlikely emails: "Don't try, don't buy, don't click, don't reply!"

Sophos users have been automatically updated to protect against the Yar Trojan horse.

Sophos recommends companies automatically update their corporate virus protection, and defend their users with a consolidated solution to defend against the threats of viruses, spyware, hackers and spam.

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 complete security solutions that are simple to deploy, manage, and use and that deliver the industry's lowest total cost of ownership. Sophos offers award-winning encryption, endpoint security, web, email, mobile and network security solutions backed by SophosLabs - a global network of threat intelligence centers.

Sophos is headquartered in Boston, US and Oxford, UK. More information is available at www.sophos.com.