From: Bob Davis (earthjuice_at_prodigy.net)
Date: 2005-05-19 13:21:27
You're not alone. These pleasant e-mails are the result of a new virus that hit the Internet
on Saturday. Here's the story:
(i am rapidly developing a hatred for email)
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16:38 16May2005 Neo-Nazis use computer spam to spread propaganda
By Andy Sullivan
WASHINGTON, May 16 (Reuters) - "Spam" e-mail, used for years to sell snake-oil medicine,
penny stocks and suspiciously low mortgages, is now being used to sell neo-Nazi ideology as
well.
A new computer worm sent right-wing German messages to millions of computers over the
weekend in what anti-virus experts said was a sign that spam has become a tool for
propagandists as well as scam artists.
"We have seen a trend in which worm authors are using spam not to hawk goods, but as a
tool for political propaganda," said Scott Chasin, chief technical officer for the anti-virus
firm MX Logic.
Chasin and other experts said the messages were sent by computers that had been infected
with a new variant of the Sober worm, which turns computers into "zombies" that can be used as
a base for attacks.
Experts described the amount of spam generated as "staggering."
"We've gotten inundated with reports of small networks getting hammered," said Scott
Fendley, an incident handler for the Internet Storm Center, a warning service that tracks
online threats.
Bearing German-language subject lines that translate to phrases like "Multicultural =
multicriminal," the messages point to racist German Web sites and news articles that could be
used to support anti-immigrant views.
The timing of the attack coincided with two events that might arouse right-wing feelings
in Germany: an election in the state of Northrhine-Westfalia and the 60th anniversary of the
end of World War II in Europe.
It came shortly after a similar spam plague that promised tickets to soccer's World Cup.
That attack probably served as a blueprint for the current campaign, experts said.
The worm's author is likely a neo-Nazi sympathizer motivated by ideology, rather than a
mercenary who would send out messages for any paying customer, experts said.
"It seems like this virus writer does not consider himself a spammer at this point," said
Dmitri Alperovitch, a research engineer at the anti-virus firm CipherTrust, citing a message
embedded in the worm's code.
The worm's author could tap the network of infected computers in the future to send more
spam or knock targeted Web sites offline, Chasin said.
((Editing by Bette O'Connor; Reporting by Andy Sullivan; Reuters Messaging
andy.sullivan.reuters.com_at_reuters.net; 202 898 8360))
--------------------
Bob Davis
earthjuice_at_prodigy.net
--------------------
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