SmallBizResource Blog -- Security

Love Means Never Opening Unsolicited Email

Posted by Gayle Kesten Thursday, Feb 14, 2008, 09:42 AM ET

Two Valentine's Day cards were perched against my now-filled coffee cup this morning -- a sweet and trustworthy way start to my day. But beware the virtual love, lest your day will quickly sour.

That's because once again those malware killjoy types like nothing better than to take advantage while we let down our mushy-gushy guards. So be very wary of cards and messages that land in your emailbox, particularly if you're not clear who they're from. By opening them, you could be exposing yourself (and your computer) to a world of hurt from the Storm Worm virus, "the Valentine vileness of choice," says bMighty's Keith Ferrell.

Hearts and flowers aside, I'm such a sucker for good alliteration.

Anyway, here's how it works, courtesy of ChannelWeb: "A romantically themed e-mail directs unsuspecting users to a Web site containing romantic images, alongside a variant of the Dorf malware. Researchers at the SANs Institute discovered that the URLs lead to binaries named valentine.exe, which, it turns out, is a version of the infamous Storm Worm. Once users link to the malicious site, they unknowingly infect their computers with the notorious botnet, which can then be used to take over their machines, launch more spam, execute denial of service attacks or steal their identity."

In a chocolate-covered nutshell: Don't fall for any of that Secret Admirer garbage. And warn your colleagues not to, either. The last person you want to cozy up with today is someone from Circuit City's Firedog department.

Security