Antivirus companies consider 'Coronex' a low threat

Published: 24 April 2003 y., Thursday
In the latest example of computer virus writers capitalizing on current events, a new e-mail worm uses fears about SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) to entice users into opening a file attachment, infecting host machines and helping spread the virus to other machines on the Internet. The worm, W32/Coronex-A (Coronex), is a mass-mailer worm that uses Microsoft Outlook e-mail application to send copies of itself to unsuspecting recipients, according to an alert from antivirus company Sophos. Coronex arrives as an attachment in e-mail messages that carry a variety of subject lines and messages relating to the deadly new respiratory illness that has turned up in Asia, North America, and Europe. Greetings such as "SARS Virus," "I need your help," and "deaths virus," accompany messages containing the virus, according to antivirus software company Symantec. Attachments containing the virus with names like "sars.exe," "Hongkong.exe," and "deaths.exe" also play into media reports of the illness, which is concentrated in Asia, Sophos said. When opened, the attachment launches the virus, displaying a pop-up window with the message "corona virus." The Coronex virus modifies the Windows registry, adding an entry to ensure that it is launched whenever Windows starts, changing the start page for the Internet Explorer Web browser and deriving the location of the Windows Address book. With the addresses in the Windows Address book, Coronex uses its own built-in SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) engine to send copies of itself to the addresses. Sender addresses for those e-mail messages include sars@hotmail.com, corona@hotmail.com and deaths@china.com, Symantec said.
Šaltinis: infoworld.com
Copying, publishing, announcing any information from the News.lt portal without written permission of News.lt editorial office is prohibited.

Facebook Comments

New comment


Captcha

Associated articles

New iPhone app from MasterCard for ATM finder gets thumbs up

The iPhone's new “ATM Hunter” is a a free iPhone application built by MasterCard that allows users to quickly find the ATMs that are closest to them. more »

House says Visa, MasterCard are to blame for security hacks, card compromises

In security breach cases last year, such as Hannaford Bros. supermarket and the card processing firm Heartland Payment Systems, cybercriminals gained access to millions of consumers' credit card details. more »

Ingenico warns contactless technology will divide the market

Ingenico, a provider of payment solutions, says contactless technology will split the retail market this year, improving sales figures for early adopters and costing those who shun the additional investment in this burgeoning technology. more »

Patent office validates many claims in widevine

Widevine Technologies today announced that the US Patent and Trademark Office has reconfirmed the validity of many claims of Widevine's U.S. more »

Nokia makes high-dollar investment in mobile payments startup

Nokia Corp., the world's largest maker of cell phones, is making a large investment in California-based Obopay Inc., a startup that's pushing person-to-person mobile-payments technology. more »

Banks invest in more tech to find synergies between anti-fraud, anti-money laundering

The increasing amount of overlap and duplication of data, tasks and processes in their anti-fraud and anti-money laundering divisions is driving banks to seek synergies between compliance, risk management and security, according to a new report from Datamonitor. more »

Global IPTV subs exceed 20mn

The total number of IPTV subscribers worldwide passed the 20mn mark at the end of 2008, according to new figures from Informa Telecoms & Media, taking into account both disclosed and estimated figures. more »

"Television is like the invention of indoor plumbing"

The IPTV World Forum opened its doors this morning on a bright London day, and the mood was equally optimistic indoors, with the conference rooms packed for keynote presentations from Christopher Schläffer of Deutsche Telekom, Christophe Forax from the European Commission and the BBC's Richard Halton, charged with making Project Canvas a reality. more »

Card fraud pushes consumers to non-bank online payments

A new Gartner Inc. report suggests that financial fraud could drive consumers away from banks and into the arms of electronic payment systems, such as PayPal, that they perceive to be more secure. more »

MasterCard: PayPass 50 million issued

In the last year this more than doubles the number of cards and devices in circulation around the world. more »