There’s a new Sober worm in town, and this one is both clever and bilingual, being sent in both English and German. The new Sober worm version, being called W32.Sober.N@mm (such appealing names!) originated in Europe, and announces itself in English with some version of “I’ve_got your EMail on my_account!” and in German with “FwD: Ich bin’s nochmal”, which, according to Babelfish means “FwD: I bin’s again” (which can’t be right – do any of you gentle readers speak German?)

One thing which makes this one more compelling is that it seems as if it really could have been sent by a human (and even more so for the German version, as German recipients are used to getting viruses and worms in English, not their native tongue). The text of the email then goes on to say “Hello, First, Very Sorry for my bad English. Someone is sending your private e-mails on my address”, and goes on to explain that the email is forwarded in the attached file. Finally, the payload (the data file containing the worm) is labelled “your_text.zip”. So it seems, at least to some, entirely plausible that someone actually ended up with email meant for them, and has forwarded it to them in a file. (Ok, probably not plausible to most of Aunty’s readers, of course, but to some.)

Of course what really happens when the file is opened and the worm is unleashed is that it searches your hard drive for your contacts and other email addresses, and sends itself out to them.

As always, the best defense is a good offense: be sure that your virus and worm definitions in your anti-virus program are current.

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