Bored Computer Virus Offers to Play a Musical Tune, Sophos Reports

<p>Anti-virus experts at Sophos have identified a new computer virus which complains of being bored and offers to play a musical tune, whilst secretly opening a backdoor for hackers.</p>
<p>The W32/Aegi-A virus hunts for executable files to infect on hard drives and floppy disks, and opens a backdoor to allow remote hackers access to affected Windows computers.</p>
<p>At certain times of the day, W32/Aegi-A will display a messagebox saying "<computer name=""> is very bored, play some music ?". If the user chooses "Yes", the virus attempts to infect the local disk drives again.</computer></p>
<p>"Some infected users may think that they have a joke program installed on their PCs when they see the message about the computer being bored," said Graham Cluley, Senior Technology Consultant for Sophos. "The good news is that a virus this obvious is never likely to be as significant a threat as some of the fast-spreading internet worms we have seen this year."</p>
<p>"The virus experts at Sophos were hoping this virus would liven up their day with a merry tune when they were testing it under laboratory conditions," continued Cluley. "Unfortunately the virus wasn't telling the truth. It doesn't play a tune despite its promise, and sadly has no multimedia capabilities at all."</p>
<p>Although only a small number of instances of the virus have been sighted so far, Sophos recommends companies protect their computers with a consolidated solution to thwart the virus and spam threats as well as secure their desktop and servers with automatically updated anti-virus protection.</p>
<p>FOR FURTHER INFORMATION:
Sean Richmond (sean.richmond@sophos.com.au) is available for comment:
+61 2 9409 9100 (tel)
+61 2 9409 9191 (fax)</p>
<p>Sophos's press contact at Gotley Nix Evans is:
Michael Henderson (sophos@gne.com.au)
+61 2 9957 5555 (tel)
+61 413 054 738 (mobile)
+61 2 9957 5575 (fax)</p>

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