It's been just over two years now since we reported on the first Bagle worm to hit the Internet hard, back in January 2004. Since then, there have been over sixty different variants found in the wild.
Experts at Sophos have warned users today about a new version of the Bagle worm which has been spread widely in the last few days.
Sophos has received many reports of the W32/Bagle-CH worm being spammed out in emails as a ZIP file attachment. When spreading via email the worm disguises itself by using the message text "February Price" and the subject line "Price".
At the time of writing, the Bagle-CH worm accounts for 10% of all viruses spotted at Sophos's global network of monitoring stations, making it the third most commonly encountered email virus.
Users opening their email may be at risk from infection and hacker attack if not properly protected. Once the worm has infected a computer, it attempts to disable anti-virus and other security software. The worm also attempts to spread itself via file-sharing networks, posing as a number of different files, including a beta of Windows Longhorn, hardcore pornography, or a copy of Adobe Photoshop 9.
Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant for Sophos said,
"We are seeing an increasing number of reports of this gateway at email gateways around the world, but those with defenses in place should have little to fear. Computer users should learn never to open unsolicited email attachments. With over 2300 new viruses, Trojans and spyware programs discovered in the last month alone its essential for businesses to automate their virus protection against the latest malware menaces, and ensure they have a policy in place at their email gateway to control what arrives in their users' inboxes."
Another recent version of the Bagle worm, W32/Bagle-CJ, can disguise itself as an email message from the Symantec online store, and attempts to spread via P2P file-sharing systems as nude pictures of actress Kate Beckinsale, or erotic content related to Paris Hilton and Britney Spears.
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