Using probably the oldest lure in the book, the promise of photographs depicting content from the Kama Sutra, a new worm dubbed W32/Nyxem-E, appears to be a PowerPoint presentation, but in actual fact infects machines with a virus that looks for personal information and in some cases, deletes Office documents.
In several documented attack instances, reports Cyberoam in its latest internet threat report, the virus is being transferred in the form of a downloadable PPT/PPS file link. While clicking on the presentation, users can see some Kama Sutra sexual positions. However, once downloaded, the malicious code simply gives hackers a backdoor access to one’s PC.
“It is one of the most dangerous attacks in recent times because once the virus infects your computer, it can be very difficult to remove it,” said Abhilash Sonwane, vice president of Product Management, Cyberoam. “Hackers would be then able to access all your personal files, execute any number of unwanted tasks and spy on your online activities. Our advice is: ‘be careful on what you click with the mouse’ and do not download any file from unreliable sources. Also, keep your anti-virus program up-to-date and enabled in real time protection mode.”
The Q4, 2010 Internet threats trend report goes on to say that an overall drop in global spam levels, down to as much as 74% of all e-mail for December, can be attributed to the recent closure of Spamit, a major organisation behind pharmacy e-mails. However, spam levels ultimately did rise to 83% towards the end of the quarter, which was still 5% down from the levels during Q3, 2010.
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