The Hindu : National : Beware of this cyber ruse

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Aug 01, 2004

National

National

Beware of this cyber ruse

By K. Srinivas Reddy

HYDERABAD, JULY 31. "Osama bin Laden commits suicide.'' "Arnold Schwarzenegger found hanging from a tree in California.''

Should you receive an e-mail with a message of this kind, do not click on any links that may promise you `exclusive pictures' of a body or a suicide note, lest your personal computer turn into a zombie in minutes. As a Trojan with a malicious code gets installed, the virus writer will virtually control the PC.

This is the latest virus to hit the Internet, with a payload termed "Hackarmy." The message has lured many a mouse potato to check the links for pictures of the Al-Qaeda figure ostensibly procured by CNN, the television network. In the case of the Governor of California, the link is seemingly to a "suicide letter" written by the star.

Obviously, messages about Osama have been replicated either by using the same code writer or another virus writer in the name of the Governor. The spread has so far been confined to newsgroups.

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