Trojan horse masquerades as message of love

An email attachment containing a number of loosely philosophical ponderings on the art of love is threatening businesses and home computer users across the world.

This latest online attack contains a malicious Microsoft PowerPoint file that is able to exploit an unpatched vulnerability in the software.

The file contains exploit code that drops the Troj/Edepol-C keylogging Trojan, which in turn allows the hacker to spy on computer users. This particularly irritating Trojan horse also tries to disable anti-virus products running on the infected computer, which only aggravates the threat.

According to experts from internet security company Sophos, the first slide in the PowerPoint presentation can be translated as:

"What is romantic? You know the girl doesn't like him, but he still sends her 999 roses. What is wasteful? You know the girl does like him, but he still sends her 999 roses."

Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant for Sophos, remarked: "The hackers exploiting this unpatched hole in PowerPoint appear to have timed the release of their malicious code to deliberately follow Microsoft's monthly security announcement.

"The bad news for Microsoft and its customers is that there was no fix for this problem in that bundle of patches. All computer users need to be exercise great caution over unsolicited email attachments."

Businesses are advised to inform employees of the dangers of opening unsolicited emails and are also reminded of the importance of seeking IT support to protect against online attacks.


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