Sober worm spreading like an epidemy

Posted on Tuesday, May 03 2005 @ 23:13 CEST by Thomas De Maesschalck
Internet security experts report that a new Sober worm variant is spreading epidemically in Western Europe. After only 24 hours the new Sober worm already accounts for 77 percent of all virus traffic on the internet - truly an unusual high number.

The new Sober worm which is dubbed as Sober.N, Sober.O or Sober.S - depending on the security company - spreads through e-mail. The worm tries to deceive people by telling them they have won a ticket to the 2006 World Cup soccer tournament.

There is an English and a German version of the e-mail and all have an infected attachment. If a user opens the attachment the virus will infect the computer and spread to newly harvested e-mail addresses.

The new Sober worm has really broken records in terms of number of infected messages sent out and speed of propagation throughout Western Europe, said anti-virus expert Sophos.

One of the reasons why this worm spreads so quickly is because many people in Europe are very eager to attend one of the largest sporting events of 2006. The first version of Sober turned up in 2003 and since then this worm and all of its variants have hit many home and corporate computer systems.

DV Hardware recommends all of its readers to protect themselves against viruses, it's just not worth the risk not to run one nowadays. You can even download excellent anti-virus programs for free so please use them and update them on a regular base to protect yourself against this crap. Also never open attachments that look fishy! More details about Sober-N can be found here.


About the Author

Thomas De Maesschalck

Thomas has been messing with computer since early childhood and firmly believes the Internet is the best thing since sliced bread. Enjoys playing with new tech, is fascinated by science, and passionate about financial markets. When not behind a computer, he can be found with running shoes on or lifting heavy weights in the weight room.



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Re: Sober worm spreading like an epidemy
by Anonymous on Wednesday, May 04 2005 @ 0:28 CEST
What's an epidemy?