Security news
Security news10 August 2004
A virus infection at what price? Sophos warns of latest Bagle variant
Virus researchers at Sophos are warning users to beware of the latest Bagle worm, Bagle-AQ, which burst onto the scene late yesterday.
Bagle-AQ spreads as an email with a blank subject line and the message text 'new price'. Attached is one of a number of ZIP files all of which also refer to 'price'. If run, the worm attempts to download a copy of Bagle-AQ from a number of websites, and the download is repeated every ten hours.
"The Bagle worms in all their various guises are becoming a real pain in the neck for the world's computer users - this is the 43rd variant," said Carole Theriault, security consultant, Sophos. "We received a huge number of reports in the first few hours of it being the wild, suggesting that Bagle-AQ was spammed out."
"This worm might seem easy to spot because of the blank subject line, but up-to-date anti-virus software will ensure that computers will be protected from it, even when it travels at break-neck speeds. We have seen many viruses dupe users into double-clicking with the promise of scantily clad celebrities, but this one relies on good old curiosity," continued Theriault.
Sophos recommends that all unsolicited emails are treated with caution.
