NHTCU Issues Warnings About the Sober Worm

The Sober worm continues its online journeys as it uses disguise after disguise to cover its true identity. This time it came up to the National Hi-Tech Crime Unit to announce users about an email message which is being randomly sent on a mass scale and poses as a warning issued by the agency.

Sober is one of the most wide-spread viruses ever and the recent avalanche of infections was quite successful because it used worldwide known organizations as its cover (like the CIA, FBI or the German Bundeskriminalamt) or it promised to display pictures of Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie.

Britain's National Hi-Tech Crime Unit was used as a cover in a very similar way other Sober variants spread recently, and the email containing the virus claimed to recipients that their internet use has been monitored and that they have accessed illegal web sites. The emails then ask recipients to open an attachment, which of course is the actual virus. The infection can be avoided by immediately deleting email messages with the subject line of "You visit illegal websites" or "Your IP was logged" from spoofed email addresses such as info@nhtcu.org and office@nhtcu.org.

Thos users who decide to find out what lies beyond this attachment will themselves contribute to further spread Sober, and their computers will also be the target of future remote attacks.