|
This was sent to us at work by our IT department. Apparently, the fundies are going back to their Aryan roots:
FYI We have created a filter to block the spam internally, and we have been informed that Postini has done the same. It appears that this problem is widespread throughout the internet so if you care to send this along to family and friends, please feel free.
A FLOOD of German-language right-wing spam hit inboxes around the globe over the weekend, pushed out by PCs infected with a version of the Sober worm.
Carrying subject lines mostly in German, the emails have links to a variety of websites carrying articles supporting right-wing causes. However, the messages themselves contain no malicious code, although the sites that the emails link to may. That means opening these messages does no harm (though as a rule it is best to just delete and not open), but clicking on the links is not advised.
It's believed that the German text in the messages may have allowed them past text-based searches in anti-spam measures designed for English-language markets.
It appears that the emails have been propagated by the "Sober.q" variant of the Sober worm, which is the one we sent out warnings about last week. When a pc was infected with that virus, it became what is known as a "zombie" , under the control of the virus writer(s), listening for instructions from him. That virus was so successful , it created a network of "zombie" PCs (known as a "botnet" or network of robot pc's) which has been used to mount the spam campaign.
This is just a reminder to make sure your PC is up to date with anti-virus software, that it auto updates every day when you turn it on, have some sort of spam filter, some sort of ad-ware protection, and that you are no longer using windows 95, or 98. Most secure is Windows XP, but make sure you run windows updates automatically as well.
Over the last few days I have spoken to a few folks who thought that they could run their pc's without antivirus because they only visited safe sites and opened email from their friends. You are ill advised indeed to take those kinds of chances, because once infected, you will most likely loose all your data and compromise any passwords and usernames you use on various websites as well. As the spam attack illustrated today, virus writers not only can infect your machine, they can and do effectively take control of your machine and can do so without your knowledge. In addition, it will most likely cost you a considerable amount of money to have someone clean the machine, or re-install all your Operating System and software and reconfigure it. Alternatively, you may try to do it yourself at a cost of considerable time, and a great deal of aggravation.
You need to run antivirus on every pc that visits the internet, and keep it up to date.
|
Printer-friendly format
Email this thread to a friend
Bookmark this thread
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
