Sober worm causes headaches
A new virus threat called Sober could be causing a few headaches today, according to antivirus researchers.
The Sober worm, spotted in the last 12 hours, is a traditional attachment-based piece of malware that uses social engineering to trick people into activating its payload.
In contrast with the Flea virus discovered last week, which so far appears to have failed to bite, Sober hides its code in an HTML email. Microsoft Outlook users can activate the payload just by opening the email.
"We haven't seen many reports of Flea at all," said Graham Cluley, senior analyst at antivirus specialist Sophos.
"Meanwhile the Sober worm has been around for a few hours and we've seen several reports of infections. It surfaced about midnight and is spreading through email systems as people log on and start checking their mail."
