February 14 or Valentine`s Day is internationally recognised as a day of romance, affection, admiration and gifts. But there is no love lost in the world of cyber crime as agents make full use of the day to send a myriad of viruses, trojan horses, worms and other threats.
Local security expert AVeS Cyber Security would like to warn its clients about the dangers lurking on the Internet around this time. The increase in traffic allows unscrupulous cyber criminals a field day among unsuspecting online visitors and open house as far as some systems are concerned.
"Do not get caught up in the frenzy of sending loads of e-mails and replying to any and every message received. Valentine`s Day provides ample opportunity for anyone to take advantage of the traffic and cause damage. It is a day when security should be at its most vigilant and, despite warnings, it is a fact that systems are targeted and fall victim to attacks. There are several ways to prepare for the upsurge in traffic and have precautions in place to handle incoming and outgoing correspondence," says Troy Carrick, who forms part of technical support at AVeS.
Aside from effective anti-virus software and assessed security, knowledge is one definite precaution. As the saying goes, prevention is better than cure.
There are a few viruses that frequently make their presence known around this time of the year. Most notably, the mass-mailing e-mail worm W32.Klez.A@mm. It attempts to copy itself into folders on both local and network drives and exploits a vulnerability in Microsoft Outlook and Outlook Express in an attempt to execute when one opens or even previews the message. The worm also inserts the virus W32.ElKern.3326 which can also infect W32.Klez.A@mm.
Finally, the worm executes its payload on 13 January, March, May, July, September and November. The payload causes files on local and mapped drives to become zero bytes in size.
There is also the VBS.Valentin@mm virus that uses the built-in encoding function of Visual Basic files. When executed, this virus sends itself to all recipients in the Microsoft Outlook address book. It also spreads using mIRC and by copying itself to shared network drives. The payload overwrites files and adds the .txt extension to them. The payload is executed if the day of the month is the 8, 14, 23 or 29.
VBS.Valentin@mm uses the VBScript.Encode function to embed itself within an HTML file.
Upon execution, the virus creates the file Main.html in the WindowsSystem folder. It then sends this file to all recipients in the Microsoft Outlook address book. The subject of the e-mail message is left blank. The viral code is contained in HTML form within the e-mail message.
Carrick adds that it would be inadvisable to open virtual e-cards, especially those marked with the subject `greeting card` or `e-card`. These auspicious-looking mails often trigger malicious activity or at very least have an impact on systems.
For more information or advice contact AVeS Cyber Security at (011) 234-0630.
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