New 'Injustice' virus spreads political message

From...

By Jason Meserve

(IDG) -- A new e-mail borne virus designed to spread a pro-Palestinian message is popping up in some North American mail systems, according to alerts from the major virus vendors.

"Injustice/VBS" spreads like other well-known e-mail viruses, such as "ILoveYou" and "Melissa," by sending itself to the first 50 users listed in a Microsoft Outlook or Outlook Express address book. It usually comes in an e-mail with a subject line of "RE:Injustice" and an attachment called "injustice.TXT.vbs". The attachment must be opened to activate the virus.

MESSAGE BOARD Security on the Net   IDG.net INFOCENTER NWFusion main page Network World Fusion's product reviews Net.Worker: Resources for teleworkers Free daily newsletters Visit an IDG site Choose a site: IDG.net CIO Computerworld Darwin Dummies.com GamePro.com The Industry Standard ITWorld.com InfoWorld.com JavaWorld LinuxWorld Macworld Online Network World Fusion PC World Publish.com SunWorld IDG.net search

Unlike some of its predecessors, Injustice (also known as VBS/Staple-A) is not designed to damage the infected system. Rather, it seems to be a new form of "hactivism," using malicious computer activity to spread a political or personal belief. After sending itself to 50 users in the infected machine's address book, the worm also sends copies of itself to 25 specific addresses within the Israeli government domain gov.il.

The virus causes a message to pop up on the screen of the infected computer: "Do not worry. This is a harmless virus. It will not do anything to your system. The intension (sic) is to help Palestinian people live in PEASE (sic) in their own land." In addition, it opens six Internet Explorer windows that point to pro-Palestinian Web sites.

"This is the first time we at CA have seen this type of virus used to spread a political message," says Ian Hameroff, business manager of Computer Associates' security solutions division in Islandia, N.Y. "Usually, hactivism takes the form of Web site defacement."

Fortunately, Injustice is not as widespread as ILoveYou, Melissa and the more recent NakedWife virus because it only sends to about 50 addresses, not every address listed in the address book. Hamerhoff adds that corporations that have learned to restrict .vbs attachments from entering or exiting their corporate e-mail systems will be unaffected by Injustice.

Enhanced tool can create tougher Anna worm
March 15, 2001
Survey: Costs of computer security breaches soar
March 12, 2001
IBM e-commerce servers vulnerable to hacks
March 9, 2001
FBI warns companies about Russian hacker attacks
March 8, 2001
'Naked Wife' virus wreaks havoc on Internet
March 6, 2001
Symantec to offer SMS notification of viruses
March 1, 2001
Security experts: Virus proves systems still vulnerable
February 19, 2001
Kournikova virus slams U.S., Europe, misses Asia
February 13, 2001

Inside the world of a 'hactivist'
(Computerworld)
Virus fighters catch NakedWife worm in the act
(IDG.net)
Mideast tensions prompt 'cyberconflicts'
(Computerworld)
Understanding viruses
(Unix Insider)
IT under siege: Conflict poses extreme challenges
(Computerworld)
Opinion : How to avoid antivirus software and survive
(IDG.net)
A virtual olive branch
(The Industry Standard)
Hope for Mideast tech detente
(The Industry Standard)

Computer Associates International Inc.

Note: Pages will open in a new browser window

External sites are not endorsed by CNN Interactive.