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Small.DAM Poses as News on Storm
Techtree News Staff, Jan 22, 2007 1216 hrs ISTThe World Wide Web now has a new worm doing the rounds - disguised as news about the storm that tore through Eastern Europe late last week...
Close-on-the-heels of winds of over 200 kph that tore through Eastern Europe late last week, leaving behind a trail of death and destruction, the World Wide Web now has a new worm doing the rounds - disguised as news about the European storm.
The e-mail with the subject line, "230 dead as storm batters Europe" contains a malicious virus, and according to F-secure, this "Storm Worm" is almost as large as some of the big attacks in 2006.
In addition to the headline, "230 dead as storm batters Europe", the spam uses a number of other provocative headlines. Attachments may be with the following filenames: "Full Clip.exe"; "Full Story.exe"; "Read More.exe"; and "Video.exe".
The new virus, called "Small.DAM," is a Trojan, a program, or message that looks benign but contains malicious code, which is installed in the users' PC when he/she opens the e-mail, and clicks on an attachment. Once inside the machine, the Trojan creates a backdoor that can be exploited later by the malware author.
According to Mikko Hypponen, Chief Research Officer of F-Secure, "Trojan assaults of this scale are an unfortunate and increasingly common event. What is significant here though is the timely nature of this assault in relation to the European storm. Malware gangs are clearly using every technique, and even tragedies like this to gain access to vulnerable machines."
Hyponen added that virus writers will typically use the affected PC in a botnet i.e. network of slave machines used to support all kinds of cyber crimes such as sending spam and phishing e-mails.
F-Secure was the first to detect the virus, and the company claims it's security products will detect and block Small.DAM.
The e-mail with the subject line, "230 dead as storm batters Europe" contains a malicious virus, and according to F-secure, this "Storm Worm" is almost as large as some of the big attacks in 2006.
In addition to the headline, "230 dead as storm batters Europe", the spam uses a number of other provocative headlines. Attachments may be with the following filenames: "Full Clip.exe"; "Full Story.exe"; "Read More.exe"; and "Video.exe".
The new virus, called "Small.DAM," is a Trojan, a program, or message that looks benign but contains malicious code, which is installed in the users' PC when he/she opens the e-mail, and clicks on an attachment. Once inside the machine, the Trojan creates a backdoor that can be exploited later by the malware author.
According to Mikko Hypponen, Chief Research Officer of F-Secure, "Trojan assaults of this scale are an unfortunate and increasingly common event. What is significant here though is the timely nature of this assault in relation to the European storm. Malware gangs are clearly using every technique, and even tragedies like this to gain access to vulnerable machines."
Hyponen added that virus writers will typically use the affected PC in a botnet i.e. network of slave machines used to support all kinds of cyber crimes such as sending spam and phishing e-mails.
F-Secure was the first to detect the virus, and the company claims it's security products will detect and block Small.DAM.
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dodopod
,Anytown, on Jan 24, 2007 03:39 AM
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