<p>The reverberations of last week's horrific and vicious attacks on the United States have rippled throughout the world, and will undoubtedly remain indelible in everyone's memory.</p>
One of the tactless results of this macabre event is that it could become the target of misuse in the guise of the computer underground exploiting user curiosity by enclosing malicious code in the form of providing news updates. Similar psychological tactics that virus writers use to manipulate users for the purpose of infecting computers is well known. Virtually all of the latest virus epidemics have been caused by the cunning transfer of file-carrying harmful programs in such a way that users themselves were responsible for unleashing the "beast" on their own computers.
The appearance of specific viruses, engaged in preying on the tragic events that have transpired in the United States, has not been long in the waiting. In the past few days, NIPC has published information about the detection of a new modification of the "Life Stages" worm that caused a short-lived epidemic in the middle of last year. The new modification is minimally differentiated from the original: only the file name has been changed to WTC.TXT.VBS, where "WTC" is the acronym for the former World Trade Center. At the moment, however, Kaspersky Lab has not received any reports of infections by this worm.
In addition, the latest modification of the "GoDog" virus has been detected, being dubbed "World Trade Center" by its larval writer.
None of the above programs poses any real threat to users. In conjunction with this, it is very possible that dangerous new viruses could soon appear, disguised as "interesting" news about the tragedy. Because of this, Kaspersky Lab urges users to be especially careful when dealing with similar e-mail files and correspondence.
More detailed information about the viruses "Life Stages,""GoDog" and others can be found in the Kaspersky Virus Encyclopedia.
