What a tangled web we weave...

Computer Associates (CA) has issued a virus hoax warning following the recent SULFNBK.EXE virus hoax palaver. This "clever" piece of social engineering fooled victims into deleting the standard Windows system utility SULFNBK.EXE under the guise that it was in fact a virus.

"It appeared as an e-mail message instructing users to delete the innocent SULFNBK.EXE file from the hard disk as it was actually a virus which would trigger on June 1st," explains Rudy de Sousa, information security technical consultant for Computer Associates SA. The fact that so many people fell for this ruse has highlighted the need for staff training and education.

"Virus hoaxes cost money in terms of bandwidth because they usually propagate by asking people to `Forward this to everyone you know`. But not only that, they also cost in corporate image. If you identify a hoax message sent from a company, you can then assume that the level of skill and training at that company is inferior," says de Sousa.

Virus hoaxes are easily identifiable because they use similar formats. Most will claim to be a warning from a respected company such as Microsoft, CNN or an anti-virus vendor. A hoax message almost always has excessive capital letters warning that the "virus" will totally destroy your hard disk, and includes the instruction to forward the warning to all your friends. The case of the SULFNBK.EXE hoax is unique in that it even asked people to delete a file.

"Any virus warning should be checked against a respected anti-virus vendor`s website before being forwarded or acted upon. You should also be suspicious of any attachments you receive and regularly update your anti-virus software," concludes de Sousa.

Additional information is available at http://ca.com/virusinfo.