14 DAY TRIAL // It looks like, lately, there's not week that goes by without a new type of worm or virus to appear. And this week's no different, because there are two new viruses out there that are giving the security companies a rough time.
Thus, the first of the two, called Breatel-A (also known as Reatle or Lebreat), which has been identified by the MessageLabs security company, attempts to launch a denial of service attack on security vendor Symantec and opens up a backdoor on infected PCs. The virus is being sent with multiple attachment types, including many .cpl files (Windows Control Panel Files) that may not automatically be blocked by some content filters and firewalls, as reported by the Register.
The second virus, much more widespread, is called Small-BDQ and has been identified in more than 120,000 emails sent towards several companies within Great Britain. The content of the email poses as a message from a user's sys admin warning that their system has been compromised and is distributing spam. The attachment is a packed executable MEW file called zam.exe, and is programmed to download the main Trojan payload from the web.
John Cheney, executive director of BlackSpider, the security company that has identified the virus, says that: "The effects of the trojan have not yet been revealed but businesses should be aware that its purpose may well be out to discover sensitive corporate information; perhaps via a key-logging tool."