In other virus-related news, malware authors have created a mass-mailing worm that poses as a plea for donations to victims of last month's Asian tsunami disaster. The VBSun-A (http://www.sophos.com/virusinfo/analyses/w32vbsuna.html) worm prompts users to open an attachment which furthers the spread of the worm as well as initiating an attack on a German hacking website.

"Duping innocent users into believing that they may be helping the tsunami disaster aid efforts shows hackers stooping to a new low," said Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant at Sophos. "This gruesome insensitivity is a despicable ploy to get curious computer users to run malicious code on their computers."

VBSun-A is not the first virus to make reference to the tsunami disaster. Earlier this month, the VBS/Geven-B (http://www.sophos.com/virusinfo/analyses/vbsgevenb.html) worm tried to spread a sick message that the tsunami was God's revenge on "people who did bad on earth". The tsunami has also become the subject of a number of email scams. ®

Related stories

VXers creating 150 zombie programs a week (http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/01/05/mcafee_avert_report/)
We're all MyDoomed (http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/07/27/google_bashing_virus/)
Zombie PCs spew out 80% of spam (http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/06/04/trojan_spam_study/)
Bofra worm sets trap for unwary (http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/11/10/bofra_worm/)
Tsunami relief donors under cyber-attack, says FBI (http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/01/06/tsunami_relief_attack/)