Original URL: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/07/23/hackarmy_trojan/
Trojan poses as bin Laden suicide pics
Usenet spam plan
Posted in Security, 23rd July 2004 15:44 GMT
Watch Now : Virtual Machine Movement with Hyper-V
Virus writers are trying to trick users into opening a Trojan horse on their PC by passing malicious code off as a "suicide photographs" of Osama bin Laden. At a result, Usenet newsgroups are overflowing with bogus messages claiming that journalists found the terrorist leader's hanged body earlier this week.
The messages direct users to a website where a file can be downloaded, purporting to contain photographs but in reality containing the Hackarmy [1] Trojan horse. Hackarmy gives virus writers control over infected machines. The Trojan has been around for some months so users with up-to-date AV software should be protected.
Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant at AV firm Sophos, said: "It looks like virus writers are trying to give it a new breath of life by targeting Usenet." ®
Related stories
CoolWebSearch is winning Trojan war [2]
Backdoor program gets backdoored [3]
Virus writers deploy bulk mail software [4]
Zombie PCs spew out 80% of spam [5]