about computer virus linked to war

[Guest guest]

This is from the Drudge website: the guy who broke the Lewinsky Story

amongst others.

love,

ceep G-MOM

PC users warned of Iraq war-inspired viruses

Wed Mar 26 2003 00:01:21 ET

Singapore (dpa) - PC users were warned on Wednesday to be careful responding

to online polls asking them to vote for or against the U.S.-led war on Iraq

that could be a hook to launch a new virus.

``A clever virus-writer may disguise a virus file as an application to vote

on the Iraq war, and with all the interest, there is a high chance that

people will click on it,'' said Cousins, managing director for Asia

of Sophos, an anti-virus vendor.

The Ganda worm will try to entice users to open it by claiming to contain

pictures of Iraq taken by U.S. spy satellites, and screensavers mocking U.S.

President Bush, Cousins told the Computer Times.

Wars increase hacking fever, said Allan Bell, Network Associates' marketing

director for the Asia-Pacific region.

``Iraq and other less developed countries also have highly skilled

programmers capable of creating complex viruses,'' he was quoted as saying.

``Successful models'' like the Yaha, an e-mail virus used by Indian

virus-writers to attack Pakistani wabsites, will be copied, Bell predicted.

There have been a lot more politically-motivated viruses and hacking attacks

over the last few years, Cousins observed. ``These are likely to continue,''

he said. ``Unfortunately, some of them will be fought using the computers of

innocent computer users.''

An ``injustice worm'' on the Israeli-Palestine clashes sends a protest e-mail

using the address of infected users to Israeli politicians, the report said.

Two weeks ago an Indian virus-writing group launched a new variant of Yaha

that can take control of a computer, using it to send spam to Pakistani

websites in the hopes of bringing them down, it added.

[Guest guest]

This is from the Drudge website: the guy who broke the Lewinsky Story

amongst others.

love,

ceep G-MOM

PC users warned of Iraq war-inspired viruses

Wed Mar 26 2003 00:01:21 ET

Singapore (dpa) - PC users were warned on Wednesday to be careful responding

to online polls asking them to vote for or against the U.S.-led war on Iraq

that could be a hook to launch a new virus.

``A clever virus-writer may disguise a virus file as an application to vote

on the Iraq war, and with all the interest, there is a high chance that

people will click on it,'' said Cousins, managing director for Asia

of Sophos, an anti-virus vendor.

The Ganda worm will try to entice users to open it by claiming to contain

pictures of Iraq taken by U.S. spy satellites, and screensavers mocking U.S.

President Bush, Cousins told the Computer Times.

Wars increase hacking fever, said Allan Bell, Network Associates' marketing

director for the Asia-Pacific region.

``Iraq and other less developed countries also have highly skilled

programmers capable of creating complex viruses,'' he was quoted as saying.

``Successful models'' like the Yaha, an e-mail virus used by Indian

virus-writers to attack Pakistani wabsites, will be copied, Bell predicted.

There have been a lot more politically-motivated viruses and hacking attacks

over the last few years, Cousins observed. ``These are likely to continue,''

he said. ``Unfortunately, some of them will be fought using the computers of

innocent computer users.''

An ``injustice worm'' on the Israeli-Palestine clashes sends a protest e-mail

using the address of infected users to Israeli politicians, the report said.

Two weeks ago an Indian virus-writing group launched a new variant of Yaha

that can take control of a computer, using it to send spam to Pakistani

websites in the hopes of bringing them down, it added.