E-Mail Worm Sobig.F Began on Porn Newsgroup-Expert
The FBI subpoenaed an Arizona Internet service provider to trace the culprit behind a fast-spreading e-mail virus that security experts said may have first been posted to an adult pictures Internet site.
One expert said the Sobig.F e-mail virus was disguised so that anyone who clicked on a link purporting to show a sexually graphic picture became infected with the self-replicating worm, which then spread itself to other e-mail addresses.
"Sobig.F was first posted to a porn Usenet group," said Jimmy Kuo, research fellow at anti-virus software maker Network Associates Inc. Usenet is a popular forum on the Internet where computer users with similar interests post and read messages.
So far, as many as 100,000 computers have been infected with Sobig.F, which in turn has spewed "millions upon millions of infected e-mails" to other Internet users, Kuo added.
"We've seen multistage attacks before, but this is probably the most effective example of that," said Bruce Schneier, chief technology officer of Counterpane Internet Security. "What can a million computers do if they're told to? Anything."
