Flame war after Klez worms onto Richer Sounds mailing list

Consumer electronics retailer Richer Sounds has pledged to beef up its security after its mailing list became a conduit for the spread of the Klez worm.

A copy of the worm (with the subject line: "Japanese lass' sexy pictures") found its way to all the subscribers on the megadeal-mailshots@lists.richersounds.com list on Sunday, presumably after one of its members became infected. This provoked a series of flames on the bargain notification list which, once again, went out to all its subscribers.

Klez is well known for its ability to spoof the email address of senders, so we can't prove the message originated with Richer Sounds (in fact headers from the original mail indicate it didn't). However the follow up messages show that the audio specialist has failed to properly moderate the contents of messages going onto the list, unthinkly forwarding everything it receives. Richer Sounds should considering disabling public access to its bargain mailshot list, and we're puzzled why it hasn't done this already.

A representative from Richer Sounds apologised for the gaffe. Richer Sounds, which manages its mailing list internally, normally has "adequate protection", he told us. The techies who run the list weren't immediately available for comment.

The incident has raised concerns from Reg readers who received it as to whether or not Richer Sounds is protecting their personal details properly.

Subscribers details were kept securely and not divulged by the gaffe, the rep told us. While this might be true (it seems that emails went out without revealing the addresses of all the subscribers on the list), the incident does not inspires confidence. ®

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