Beware Fake ‘FBI and CIA’ Emails
OK, the Sober worm is at it again.
This dangerous email worm has resurfaced and is being spread around by fake emails that purport to be from the FBI or the CIA. These emails warn that you “have been observed visiting illegal web sites” and seeks to induce you to open the attachment.
The attachment is in the form of a .zip file.
DO NOT OPEN THE ATTACHMENT!!!!
DELETE THIS EMAIL IMMEDIATELY!!
Any such emails are absolutely and positively NOT from the FBI or the CIA.
The attachment contains the Sober mass emailing worm and Trojan horse. It will take over your computer (possibly without you even knowing it) and send out viruses to everybody in your address book and it will attempt to find any personal identifying data that it can on your computer and send it to criminals. In other words it turns your computer into a spam spewing zombie.
Said Graham Cluely of Sophos, “This variant of the Sober worm may catch out the unwary as they open their email inbox this morning. Every law-abiding citizen wants to help the police with their enquiries, and some will panic that they might be being falsely accused of visiting illegal websites and want click on the unsolicited email attachment. All users should be reminded to follow safe computing guidelines, and PCs should be kept automatically updated with the latest anti-virus protection. Anyone who may have information about the Sober worm’s author should report it to the computer crime authorities. This malware writer has been maliciously attacking innocent computer users for over two years, and must be stopped.”
Full text of this article can be found at:
Sophos.com
In addition to deleting all such emails, please be sure that your antivirus program is up-to-date.
