E-mail worm throws up hate spam A nasty side-effect for machines infected by the recent computer worm Sober-P has been revealed.
The worm has opened up a backdoor for a spam engine which has been downloading hate messages to all infected machines. The inboxes of affected PCs have been filling with messages linked to right-wing German websites. Sober-P grabbed attention at the beginning of the month, in Germany and around the world. The German version offered tickets to the 2006 World Cup. Political spam Now it has revealed a darker side and since Saturday has been downloading a spam engine - dubbed Sober-Q - which has bulk e-mailed links to right-wing German websites to all the PCs originally infected by Sober-P. Politically motivated spam is a relatively recent development with the majority of junk e-mail aimed at emptying wallets with offers of porn, health cures and financial assistance. The fact that the spam engine was kicked into effect by an earlier worm shows a "long-term desire" on the part of the author, and one that has been successful. Security firm Clearswift said it was seeing as many as ten right-wing spam messages every minute. "The original worm was obviously very successful and the volume of spam is huge," added Clearswift's threat lab manager, Pete Simpson. Story from BBC NEWS: http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/technology/4552197.stm Published: 2005/05/16 14:37:40 GMT � BBC MMV You are a subscribed member of the infowarrior list. Visit www.infowarrior.org for list information or to unsubscribe. This message may be redistributed freely in its entirety. Any and all copyrights appearing in list messages are maintained by their respective owners.
