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17 November 2004

Porno Trojan horse lies in wait for seedy web surfers, says Sophos

The Delf-IT Trojan horse waits for surfers to visit hardcore adult websites
The Delf-IT Trojan horse waits for surfers to visit hardcore adult websites.

Sophos comments on malware being used in 'porn wars'

Sophos, a world leader in protecting businesses from virus and spam, has discovered a Trojan horse which preys on visitors to hardcore adult websites.

The Troj/Delf-IT Trojan horse lurks in the background on infected PCs, waiting for the user to visit webpages which contain one of various adult phrases in their title. If the Trojan horse determines you are visiting a hardcore website it then downloads code which redirects the browser to another pornographic site.

"It's possible that the Delf Trojan horse is deliberately designed to drive traffic from other adult webpages to its own grubby website," said Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant for Sophos. "With so much money being made by internet pornographers it may be that some of them are using Trojan horses like this to generate more traffic and revenue. All computer users should keep their anti-virus software up-to-date, as well as thinking carefully about whether they should really be visiting websites of a dubious nature."

The Trojan horse contains over 50 trigger phrases to look for, which will cause it to spring into action. The phrases include:

"Because some of the trigger phrases chosen by the Trojan - particularly 'outdoor' and 'beauty' - can be used perfectly innocently, it's possible that surfers who wished to see nothing sordid will find themselves redirected to a hardcore pornography website," continued Cluley. "People who have an interest in rambling and the great outdoors may find themselves far from the beaten track."

Although only a small number of instances of the Trojan horse have been sighted so far, Sophos recommends companies protect their computers with a consolidated solution to thwart the virus and spam threats as well as secure their desktop and servers with automatically updated anti-virus protection.

Do you know how many employees are running virtualisation software on their PCs?



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