NetXactics, the southern African distributor for Sophos, a world leader in corporate anti-virus protection, today announced that Sophos technical support has received a number of calls from users of Apple Macintosh computers concerned they may have been infected by the BugBear worm (W32/Bugbear-A).
Although Macintosh users can pass on the Bugbear virus by forwarding e-mails they have received, Sophos advises that Macintoshes cannot be infected. Sophos also reminded users that blindly forwarding e-mails of unknown provenance is a bad idea.
BugBear, like some other recent worms such as Klez and Yaha, often puts fake information in the `From:` and `Reply-To` entries in the e-mail header. This means infected e-mails often appear to come from someone who is not infected.
Sophos recommends that users do not reply to e-mails that contain the BugBear, Klez or Yaha viruses, since they are almost certainly not communicating with the real sender of the virus and are probably blaming the wrong person.
"BugBear`s ability to forge addresses into infected e-mails has caused considerable confusion within the Mac community," commented Brett Myroff, CEO of local Sophos Distributor, NetXactics. "However Mac fans should stay calm, this is a Windows virus that can`t touch Macs."
BugBear is the latest example of a worm that exploits Microsoft operating system vulnerabilities, but just because Mac users will escape infection on this occasion doesn`t mean Macs are immune to viruses. Sophos advises that users of all operating systems keep their anti-virus software up to date and practise safe computing to prevent infection.
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NetXactics is a south African-based company, focused on the provision of security solutions. It is the sole distributor in Sub-Saharan Africa for UK-based Sophos Plc, one of the leaders in the provision of anti-virus software for the corporate environment, and for Australian-based WebSpy Ltd, formerly Livingstone Group, and developer of Internet Access Management applications. For more information, visit NetXactics at www.netxactics.co.za.
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