High Worm Alert: Sober X

A new and extremely fast and dangerous spreading worm is on the loose.

The worm, named Sober X comes through as an e-mail. The e-mail is a bogus FBI or CIA document that claims that the U.S. government has caught your IP address visiting over 30 illegal websites.

It then asks that you open the attachment to fill out some questions.

Once you open the e-mail's attachment the virus spreads to everyone on you contacts or address list.

It also disables firewall, virus protection and blocks you from entering computer security sites that can help fix the problem.

Once your computer defences are weakened the worm could potentially grab personal information from you.

Alfred Huger, a senior director of engineering at Symantec Corp, says:

"This particular virus is a mass-mailer worm and is the largest one we have seen this year,"

"It's as bad as it gets,"

"With this particular type of virus on your system, there is a high probability that your personal information will be stolen."

The FBI and the CIA haven't found this funny. Both organizations have put warnings telling people that they haven't sent out these e-mails and urging them not to open the attachment.

Here are some tips to protect yourself from worms and viruses:

• Be leary of opening e-mail attachments, especially if they don't come from people you know. If you are even in the least suspicious, delete it!


• Install and anti-virus program and keep it up to date.


• Install a firewall

(See: TheStar.com)

Technorati Tags: worm, virus, Sober X.