The Hindu : Business : Old game, new tools

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Feb 05, 2005

Business

Business

Old game, new tools

By K. Srinivas Reddy

HYDERABAD, FEB. 4. Malicious code writers are becoming more mischievous by the day, as computer users across the globe now realise.

It is not merely mundane statements that lure users to open an attachment, which in turn activates a worm. It could be the image of a senior citizen making faces or practising the art of `gurning,' as the English would call it. Or it could be a musical abuse — a chorus of people singing: "You are an idiot."

In two of the more innovative methods employed of late to lure users to open attachments, code writers have unleashed Wurmark-D, which rides along with a new variant of the Rbot worm. The Wurmark-D would display the image of a `gurning' man, while Rbot silently spreads across networks without user interaction.

The Wurmark worm can also harvest the e-mail address and send itself out. The Rbot will look for vulnerable computers and install a Trojan. The e-mail carrying this worm will have the subject line `Hhahahah lol!!!!', `Rate my PC' `Your Pic On A Website' or `You have an admirer', according to net security companies.

The other worm hurling the musical abuse is Cisum. A, which plays a single line audio file. All you get to here is a chorus, "You are an Idiot," with the line displayed on the screen. This worm too is sent as an e-mail attachment — project.exe. On activation it disables anti-virus programmes, leaving the computer vulnerable to attacks.

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