Sun, Oct 30 2005 9:18 Don

Bird flu brings on PC virus

Virus writers are using fears of the bird flu to distribute a Trojan horse.

Virus writers, forever in search of opportunities to distribute their malicious code, are exploiting interest in the avian flu by circulating an e-mail with an attachment that contains information about the bird flu epidemic -- and a Trojan horse tucked inside.

"Using the bird flu is a very clever way of drawing attention and enticing those PC users less knowledgeable or concerned about security to open the attachment," said Jeanine Rother, a virus researcher at the German subsidiary of Panda Software International SL. "Although users are constantly being told not to open attachments from unknown sources, some are likely to ignore these warnings because of their interest in the epidemic and potential threat to their own lives."

Rother was unable to say how many computers have been so far infected with the Trojan horse, which the company detected in its virus lab.

Panda Software has given the malware a low-risk rating in a message posted on its Web site.

Computerworld
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