Virus Alert – Just calm down

Experts at SophosLabsâ„¢, Sophos’s global network of virus, spyware and spam analysis centers, have warned users not to panic over the threat posed by the Nyxem-D worm (also known as Blackworm, Email-Worm.Win32.VB.bi, Win32/Mywife.e or W32.Blackmal.E@mm), which is programmed to wipe data on infected computers on Friday 3 February, but to take calm action.

“When you panic, you make mistakes,” said Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant for Sophos. “Sit down, have a cup of tea, and work out if you have done everything you should have done to ensure your computer isn’t at risk from the Nyxem worm, and indeed any of the other 120,000 pieces of malware in existence.”

The W32/Nyxem-D worm, which can pose as pictures of the Kama Sutra, has a destructive payload, which triggers half an hour after a computer is booted on the third day of any month, destroying DOC, XLS, MDB, MDE, PPT, PPS, ZIP, RAR, PDF, PSD and DMP files by replacing their contents with the phrase:

DATA Error [47 0F 94 93 F4 K5]

The Nyxem worm overwrites files with a bogus error message

Sophos automatically updated customers with protection against the W32/Nyxem-D Windows worm, which does not infect Macintosh computers, at 16:03 GMT on 16 January 2006. Experts believe that home users may be at more risk than businesses because typically they take security issues less seriously.

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Sophos urges calm as panic over Friday’s Nyxem worm attack spirals