Tuesday, May 17, 2005

German Spam, Nasty

My work email addy got hit bad with this spam - and annoyingly it wasn't caught by our spam blockers. Bah!

Bradenton Herald | 05/17/2005 | New spam clogging computer emails: "A flood of German-language spam, with links to a far-right German political party, is clogging e-mail in-boxes, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel reported today.

A virus known as Sober.p, which attacked computers earlier this month, created the new spam, or unsolicited e-mails. The virus turned affected machines into the tech equivalent of a carrier that unwittingly spreads a disease. However, the spam itself is not a virus and doesn't infect machines, the newspaper reported.

Thousands of computers disseminated the spam Monday and over the weekend, even though the owners of most of those computers had no idea their machines had been hijacked.

It has not been determined who is responsible for the virus.

The e-mails coincide with the 60th anniversary of the end of World War II. Though the contents vary, most of the e-mails contain war-related political messages, such as 'Dresden 1945,' referring to the Allied bombing of the German city.

Most of the spam included links to German Web sites, including the site for the far-right National Democratic Party, the Sun-Sentinel said.

The site could not be accessed late Monday.

Protection against computer virus attacks is acquired by employing anti-virus software that is up to date."

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