Computer experts warn of viruses in Valentine
messages
Posted: 10 February 2007 0721 hrs
WASHINGTON: Security experts are warning PC users to be on guard
against viruses masquerading as Valentine's Day messages, which
could damage computers.
"Computer users should keep a wary eye on any romantic messages
received by e-mail, as many of them could contain malicious code,"
said US security firm PandaLabs after detecting an increase in a
worm it dubbed Nurech.A.
The worm hides in e-mails with subjects like: "Together You
and I," "Till the End of Time Heart of Mine."
People who open an attached file such as postcard.exe can end up
infecting their computers.
Security firm Symantec said it had detected "large-scale spamming"
of e-mails including a Trojan horse, a program that contains or
installs a malicious program.
Symantec said the malware was a new version of Trojan.Peacomm or
the "Storm Trojan".
"With Valentine's Day approaching, this time around the authors are
attempting to tug on the heartstrings of unsuspecting users with
romantic subject lines such as 'My Heart belongs to you'," said
Symantec's Orla Cox.
"The Trojan is much the same as we've seen before, the only
difference being that the authors have used a modified packer in an
(unsuccessful) effort to evade detection by antivirus
vendors."
"As a general rule, don't open any suspicious e-mail, regardless of
what it says it contains," said Luis Corrons, technical director of
PandaLabs.
"Instead of going on instincts, let a security solution decide
whether it's safe to open it or not," he said, urging users to scan
any suspicious messages with an antivirus program.
Corrons said events like Valentine's Day and Christmas are often
exploited by cyber-criminals to try and spread their creations by
disguising infected e-mails as e-greeting cards.
This use of "social engineering" was used in the LoveLetter virus,
which caused one of the biggest epidemics in computer
history.
