Beware of Virus Authors Exploiting World Cup Themes
Kaspersky Labs warns of attempts to exploit the popular World Cup theme.
Kaspersky Labs, an international data-security software developer, warns users about the first appearance of malicious programs taking advantage of the hugely popular and widespread World Cup theme. Despite the popular theme the network worm Brit.G, also well known as Chick.F, does not threaten to be the cause of a new Internet virus epidemic.
The original version of the Brit. Internet worm was a simple virus-worm that spread via e-mail and IRC channels in the attached CHM file, “Britney.CHM”. To launch this virus a user would have to open the attached file, only after this would the worm infect the computer and send out copies of itself only to the first address in the MS Outlook address book.
Currently, Kaspersky Labs is familiar with six different versions of this program – b,c,d,e,f,g – , distinguished by their subjects and attachment file names. The author of the most recent version, “Brit.g”, attempts to draw attention by exploiting today’s most popular theme as bait – The World Cup football championship.
Brit.g:
Message Subject – RE: Korea Japan Results
Attachment File Name – KOREAJAPAN.CHM
However, due to a range of technical errors in the worm’s code, the probability of it spreading in the wild is virtually zero.
“Virus authors are still actively employing social engineering methods in trying to manipulate the behavior of users, such as by using promising file names that compel users to open suspicious files”, commented Eugene Kaspersky, the head of anti-virus research at Kaspersky Labs. “We don’t count out the appearance of new virus “masterpieces” and in connection with this we look very negatively upon attempts by other anti-virus companies to rate new virus programs. Such ratings may actually encourage competition among virus authors.”
Kaspersky Labs once again urges users of the necessity to be extremely careful with e-mail containing popular subject themes. We also recommend users refrain from “checking out” file attachments supposedly connected to the World Cup football championship, especially without the use of an anti-virus program armed with a freshly updated anti-virus database.
For more detailed information about the Brit. series of worm viruses please click here.