"The onset of the Iraq war is prompting a flood of cyberattacks and malicious e-mail worms, as hackers of all stripes and colors (pro-Islamic, antiwar or just plain malicious coders) seize an opportunity to wreak online havoc," reports the Washington Post.
"At least three e-mail viruses that their authors claim were released in response to the war have started making rounds on the Net," according to my Wired News partner-in-crime, Michelle Delio.
So far, the war-related worm in widest circulation is Ganda. (The worm) arrives with one of several different subjects and messages, all with references to the current military action and political situation.
One variation claims the attachment contains pictures of Iraq taken by U.S. spy satellites; another purports to contain a pro-America screensaver and urges people to display it to show support in the war against terrorism. Others come with messages claiming the attachment is either an anti-George W. Bush or pro-peace screensaver.
Once the attachments are opened on PCs running Windows, Ganda behaves like many other e-mail worms, e-mailing itself to all the addresses in the infected machine's Outlook contact list. It also scans the machine for security software -- such as McAfee, Norton or Sophos antivirus products -- and shuts them down.
