Security news
Security news26 June 2007
Shockwave as Trojan horse uses animated disguise Windows users risk being duped by animation smokescreen
The Trojan horse plays a Shockwave animation by Italian cartoonist Bruno Bozzetto.
Experts at Sophos, a world leader in IT security and control, have discovered a Trojan horse that disguises its malicious intent by playing a humorous animation.
The Troj/Agent-FWO Trojan horse plays the popular "Yes & No" Shockwave video created by the Italian animator Bruno Bozzetto, but only after embedding itself on users' computers and downloading further malicious code from the internet.
"Yes & No", which was published on the internet by Bozzetto in 2001, is a humorous video about how obeying the rules of the road does not always make sense. Hundreds of thousands of people are believed to have watched the online animation. According to Sophos experts, the Trojan horse is playing the animation as a smokescreen as it silently infects Windows computers.
"It's important to realise that the animation itself is not malicious - thousands of artists, like Bruno Bozzetto, have created funny movies whose only negative can be the hours that have been spent watching them," said Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant for Sophos. "But the Trojan horse which is playing the animation in this instance is dangerous. Troj/Agent-FWO is exploiting society's predilection for forwarding humorous animations on to friends and family in its attempt to infect as many people as possible."
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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
