Halloween spam hits inboxes

Sophos this week intercepted an attempt by spammers to hijack Halloween festivities and grab personal information from innocent Internet users, according to Brett Myroff, CEO of Sophos distributor, Netxactics.

"This spam campaign tries to lure recipients into handing over a wide range of personal information with the promise of a $250 gift card," he explains.

According to Myroff, the e-mail uses a variety of puns associated with the spooky celebrations on 31 October. Clicking on links contained in the e-mail takes computer users to a Web site containing Halloween imagery.

The Web site asks for a large amount of personal information, including e-mail addresses, postal addresses, phone numbers and date of birth, before presenting a stream of questionnaires on subjects as diverse as student loans, gender and cigarette smoking.

Notable malware this week also includes the W32/Sdbot-DIJ worm, affecting Windows users, says Myroff.

"W32/Sdbot-DIJ is a worm with IRC backdoor functionality for the Windows platform. It runs continuously in the background, providing a backdoor server which allows a remote intruder to gain access and control over the computer via IRC channels," he explains.

W32/Autorun-G is another worm affecting the Windows platform, and is spreading via network shares. Its side effects include installing itself in the registry. Aliases for this worm include W32/Autorun.worm.h and Win32/VB.FX.

"Also of concern is that W32/Autorun-G attempts to spread to any device that is mapped to a drive letter," he adds.

A number of lower prevalence Trojan horses have also emerged, again affecting Windows users, according to Myroff. Troj/Delf-EYN, also occurring as Trojan-Downloader.Win32.Delf.ago, includes functionality to access the Internet and communicate with a remote server via HTTP.

The W32/Naplik-A virus is also making the rounds, spreading via infected files. Affecting Windows, it attempts to infect executables on the infected computer.

W32/Volage-D is another virus spreading via infected files and e-mail attachments and it has mass-mailing functionality.

"With spam not likely to abate and a spate of new viruses, worms and Trojans constantly emerging, companies should be protecting themselves with a consolidated solution, which can control network access and defend against the threats of spam, hackers, spyware and viruses," Myroff says.

"Organisation should further consider policing the types of files that come into their networks via e-mail."