Warnings over Valentine's Day storm worm

Security firms issue early warning on upcoming malware

Security firms PC Tools and Sophos today warned computer users about an upcoming storm worm set to take advantage of Valentine's Day on 14 February.

The Valentine's Day storm worm doesn't deliver romantic messages in the spirit of the day; rather an infected attachment that could compromise your computer instead. Email messages with subjects such as "I would dream" and "Memories of you" contains "withlove.exe" and other Valentine's Day-themed executable files attached.

The body of the email contains a link to an IP address-based website, which is actually one of the many compromised PCs in the storm network of computers. The website displays a large red heart, while installing malware onto your computer.

"This heart attack has been spammed out on a huge scale by an organised gang hellbent on stealing access to your computer for criminal purposes," said Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant at Sophos.

"It seems the hackers were too impatient to wait for Valentine's Day this year before plucking on heart strings in their attempt to infect the unwary. People will be truly lovesick if they let the malicious code run on their computer."

PC Tools warns consumers that the worm delivers rootkits and malicious code and maintains control of a computer system via peer-to-peer communications (P2P). If your computer gets infected, it may be compromised as a tool in identity theft and financial loss.

Break your PC's heart

Sophos said that 8 per cent of 'romantic emails' - or one in every 12 messages - is likely to "break your computer's heart".

As per usual, the advice is to stay clear of suspicious and unsolicited emails, and make sure your computer is updated with the latest anti-virus software. Email worms pry on people's need for affection and curiousness, so think twice before you open any of the Valentine's Day-themed emails that are guaranteed to hit your inbox over the next few weeks.

"Your computer and the data on it is precious, and it needs to be protected. No-one should be blinded by an unexpected romantic message into clicking on links to unknown websites. The best defence is common sense, combined with up-to-date anti-virus software and spam protection at your gateway," Cluley added.

Valentine's Day "Storm Worm" Virus Coming

Posted Jan 17th 2008 6:22PM by Terrence O'Brien
Filed under: Computers

...And the Storm Worm strikes again. Like a computerized Tet Offensive, the team behind the now infamous Storm Worm uses holidays as an excuse to launch attacks on unsuspecting e-mailers. Christmas, New Year's, and now the computer criminals are prepping for an electronic Valentine's Day massacre.

The nature of Valentine's Day may make the attack much less effective. New Year's and Christmas are holidays in which people often reach out to family and friends they don't speak to on a regular basis, where as Valentine's tends to be celebrated privately by couples.

The attack is also not very sophisticated and can be easily thwarted by even the least computer savvy of users. The worm presents itself in the form of an e-mail with a Valentine's Day subject and a body consisting of a simple IP address. Clicking on the IP address takes you to a page that displays a heart and the message "your download should begin shortly." If your download doesn't automatically start it instructs you to click a download link and run the file.

The attack probably won't be as successful or as widespread as past outbreaks, but some sad lovers are sure to be infected.

From Ars Technica