[NU Sports] Computer worm warning

[John A. DeGroat]

FYI

I received this from the email news letter of the Association  of Former 
Intelligence Officers that usually has some good stuff in it.  I've 
gotten this fake email a number of times over the past several weeks.

John DeGroat



FAKE CIA, FBI E-MAILS SPREAD WORST WORM OF THE YEAR 
<mailbox:///C%7C/Documents%20and%20Settings/John%20A.%20DeGroat/Application%20Data/Mozilla/Profiles/default/sbute8gm.slt/Mail/incoming.verizon.net/Trash?number=5488660#TOC_SECIII> 
- What is being called the worst worm of the year looks like an official 
e-mail from the CIA or FBI but can leave your computer wide open to 
intruders, the Washington Post reported on 24 November.
www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/11/23/AR2005112302147.html 
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/11/23/AR2005112302147.html> 

The fake e-mail pretends the government has discovered you have visited 
illegal Web sites and asks you to open an attachment to answer some 
questions. If the attachment is opened, the computer is infected with 
malware that can disable security and firewall programs and send similar 
e-mails to contacts in its address book. It can also keep the computer 
user from accessing security Web sites that might help fix the problem, 
and it may open a Windows computer to intruders who can steal personal data.
The CIA and the FBI have put warnings on their Web sites about the worm, 
known as Sober X. In Europe, Austria's equivalent to the FBI is 
investigating a flurry of similar bogus e-mails sent in its name to 
people in Austria, Germany and Switzerland, the Associated Press reported.
Sober is known to affect only those computers running the Windows 
operating system. It appears that Apple and Linux computer users were 
not affected.
The e-mail includes an authentic phone number for the FBI or CIA. FBI 
operators have been routing complaints to its Internet Crime Complaint 
Center in West Virginia, which received more than 4,000 complaints about 
the worm on 21 November.  ICC typically receives 18,000 complaints each 
month.
The CIA version of the e-mail contains a real CIA number but lists 
Washington, rather than Langley, as an address for the agency. (PJK, DKR)