Security news
Security news20 December 2005
Sober worm persuades child porn offender to turn himself in to police
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| A paedophile who received an email from the Sober-Z worm gave himself up to the police. |
A media report by Reuters has revealed that a child porn offender has turned himself in to the authorities after mistaking an email sent by a computer worm as an official warning that he was being investigated.
The 20-year-old German man, who has not been named, mistook a message sent by the prevalent Sober-Z worm which claimed he was being investigated by Germany's Federal Crime Office (known as the BKA) for visting illegal websites. Police at the city of Paderborn charged the man after finding pornographic pictures of children on his computer.
"We're used to explaining to people that there's no such thing as a good virus, but in this case it appears that the Sober-Z worm has accidentally scared an internet paedophile into contacting the police." said Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant for Sophos. "If he had been scanning his email for viruses he would never have received the message from the Sober worm. If jailed he'll have plenty of time to reflect on whether he should have believed everything that was sent to him via email."
The W32/Sober-Z worm, which is presently accounting for over 78% of all viruses reported to Sophos, can disguise itself as a message from investigators at the FBI, CIA or BKA. A typical email can read as follows:
Dear Sir/Madam,
We have logged your IP-address on more than 30 illegal Websites.
Important: Please answer our questions! The list of questions are attached.
Yours faithfully,
Steven Allison
Federal Bureau of Investigation-FBI-
935 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW , Room 3220
Washington , DC 20535
Phone: (202) 324-30000
Sophos customers proactively protected against Sober-Z worm
Sophos's proactive Genotype™ technology was capable of detecting the Sober-Z worm proactively (naming it as W32/Sober-Gen), defending customers' computers without requiring an update. Sophos PureMessage, Sophos's consolidated email gateway solution which defends businesses against both spam and viruses, can also block the spam messages sent by the worm.
Sophos recommends companies protect their email with a consolidated solution to thwart the virus and spam threats and secure their desktops and servers with automatically updated anti-virus protection.
When considering your anti-malware security vendor, what is more important to you?
About Sophos
Sophos enables enterprises all over the world to secure and control their IT infrastructure. Sophos's network access control, endpoint, web and email solutions simplify security to provide integrated defenses against malware, spyware, intrusions, unwanted applications, spam, policy abuse, data leakage and compliance drift. With over 20 years of experience, Sophos protects over 100 million users in nearly 150 countries with its reliably engineered security solutions and services. Recognized for its high level of customer satisfaction and powerful yet easy-to-use solutions, Sophos has received many industry awards, as well as positive reviews and certifications.
Sophos is headquartered in Boston, US and Oxford, UK. More information is available at www.sophos.com
