Saddam death worm and IM virus pose new threats

"Many people these days use the internet to keep abreast of the latest breaking news stories. It is these individuals that worms like Bobax-H [the name of the malware] are trying to infect," said Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant at anti-virus company Sophos.

"People who launch unsolicited attachments without thinking are walking straight into the hands of malicious virus writers and spamming gangs."

Unprotected users will find that worm disables anti-virus software and forwards itself to other email addresses found on the infected machine.

In other wormy news Bropia.F has been issued with a "medium-risk" banner by anti-virus company Trend-Micro. The worm spreads itself via Microsoft's MSN Messenger instant messaging platform.

Sending itself to online contacts found on the infected machine, Bropia hiding itself behind the promise of saucy images. All users actually receive is a picture of chicken with a tan-line and some malware on their machine.

www.trendmicro.com
www.sophos.com