The lowest virus ever?

[Trippledence]

VXers release 'London bombing' Trojan

Virus writers have created a Trojan which poses as London terrorist attack news footage. Infected emails harbouring the Trojan pose as a CNN Newsletter which asks recipients to ‘See attachments for unique amateur video shots’ (example below).

If executed, the malicious attachment turns infected Windows PCs into spam zombies. The as-yet unnamed Trojan attempts to obtain a list of SMTP servers that the victim's machine is configured to use and starts to use these servers to send large volumes of unsolicited mail. Email security firm MessageLabs has intercepted a handful of copies of the malware, so it's not widespread, but it does illustrate the depth virus writers are prepared to sink to in order to spread their wares.

The use of topical events to spread malware is nothing new and it wouldn't surprise us if most London bombing-themed Trojans were created. It's yet another reason to avoid any temptation to open unsolicited email attachments.

I dont get people these days, i mean even if its not a risky virus and chances are most people will pick it up. But thats not the point, the fact that these people can use the lost lives of others to further themselves is sick. That reminds me, did any one see about london hotels raising prices becuase of the high demand from people that coulnt get home. Its just not on.

Artical from : http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/07...mbing_spambot/

[javalord]

Those Hotels should be named for the sake of making sure I avoid places that like. And as for this virus, im sure there was something similar in sept 11 that was just as tasteless. ***** have no limits unfortunately.

[Mike Fishcake]

I'd not heard that story until I just read this, but unfortunately it's to be expected really. Any big news story is used to tempt people into downloading files.

[Howard]

Pathetic. I hope these people choke.

[XA04]

Very low, very pathetic

[Twigman]

Its just using currents events to spread viruses. Its not a new idea at all. I am not surprised tbh.

[oralpain]

I really don't see what the big deal is. Who expects viruses to be "tasteful"?

[XA04]

I really don't see what the big deal is. Who expects viruses to be "tasteful"?

The ones that wipe other viruses out
(Yes they do exist). I can't remember the names, I think it was the netsky and bagle virus writers kept writing viruses and part of their replication code was to remove one or the other virus(s) , and then sending messages to each other through the code.

[Yohji]

I really don't see what the big deal is. Who expects viruses to be "tasteful"?

Yeah, but virus pretending to be news about bombings in London is just too far...

[bertie]

Nothing is too far for virus creators/distributors

[Matt1eD]

There's always some **** (place any four letter expletive there) who goes around doing this sort of stuff after disasters or some form or another.

There was after twin towers, madrid bombings, tsunami and now this.

[Xaneden]

Yeah Matt1eD, I think the worst was the Tsunami. This man (I forget his name) found the email addresses and names of families who were missing relatives from a 'missing person' site which had been formed to cope with the disaster. He then went on to email each of those people, telling them their relatives had been found dead.

Turns out this guy was in his 50s, and had children. I mean, what is wrong with the world? What kind of mentality do these people have for crying out loud?

[Voodle]

[Matt1eD]

Yeah Matt1eD, I think the worst was the Tsunami. This man (I forget his name) found the email addresses and names of families who were missing relatives from a 'missing person' site which had been formed to cope with the disaster. He then went on to email each of those people, telling them their relatives had been found dead.

It was off all the plea sites, asking for information incase they were found.

They really are bastards

[Trippledence]

So, some spammers wrote a trojan exploiting people's concern over the bombings and they're even lower than they were?
They write viruses and trojans to send out spam (possibly for commercial purposes), that's already about as low as it gets.

I didnt know about the other ones when i made the thread, I think the Tsunami ones much worce, i mean it was directly relating to the people involved, how someone witha family could do that. I cant imadgine.

[oralpain]

Yeah, but virus pretending to be news about bombings in London is just too far...

Plenty of viruses have done serious damage. All this virus did was offend some people and spam some more. I don't think it's very bad as far as viruses go.

Personally I've got a bigger problem with viruses and the like stealing personal information, corrupting data, or doing more substantial damage to various infrastructures.

Offending someone's sensibilities hardly makes this virus worthy of more attention.