EASTLondon
01-23-2005, 01:54 PM
Robert Jaques,
vnunet.com
Virus masquerades as email from security firm
An as yet unnamed mass-mailer worm which masquerades as an alert from IT security firm BitDefender has been discovered spreading in the wild.
The infection, which comes in an email message with a spoofed 'from' field (support@bitdefender.com), prompts users to download harmful executables from a Romanian website.
BitDefender stated that the hosting company of the website in question has been contacted and asked to remove the offending code and site.
"We expect this to be the work of a bored Romanian student or some such. The whole set-up is amateurish in the extreme," said BitDefender chief technology officer Bogdan Dumitru.
"Nevertheless, we are receiving about 20 bounced emails per minute, so I suspect that the virus is spreading at a steady pace."
BitDefender advised surfers not to follow the link or download the executables under any circumstances, to update their antivirus with the latest definitions and to initiate a full scan of their computers at their earliest convenience.
The firm added that its support team does not, under any circumstances, send security warnings of any kind.
A virus definition has been issued and BitDefender's labs is working on a removal tool which will be available on the company's website here (http://www.bitdefender.com/index.php).
News Article Link (http://www.vnunet.com/news/1160668)
vnunet.com
Virus masquerades as email from security firm
An as yet unnamed mass-mailer worm which masquerades as an alert from IT security firm BitDefender has been discovered spreading in the wild.
The infection, which comes in an email message with a spoofed 'from' field (support@bitdefender.com), prompts users to download harmful executables from a Romanian website.
BitDefender stated that the hosting company of the website in question has been contacted and asked to remove the offending code and site.
"We expect this to be the work of a bored Romanian student or some such. The whole set-up is amateurish in the extreme," said BitDefender chief technology officer Bogdan Dumitru.
"Nevertheless, we are receiving about 20 bounced emails per minute, so I suspect that the virus is spreading at a steady pace."
BitDefender advised surfers not to follow the link or download the executables under any circumstances, to update their antivirus with the latest definitions and to initiate a full scan of their computers at their earliest convenience.
The firm added that its support team does not, under any circumstances, send security warnings of any kind.
A virus definition has been issued and BitDefender's labs is working on a removal tool which will be available on the company's website here (http://www.bitdefender.com/index.php).
News Article Link (http://www.vnunet.com/news/1160668)