The Storm Worm is back. The e-mail virus, which first attacked in January, has returned with a vengeance during the last 24 hours, boosting the amount of virus traffic on the Internet to as much as 60 times the normal amount, according to San Carlos communication security company Postini.
Once installed on a personal computer, the virus takes control of the machine, sending personal information stored on the PC back to the online criminals who created the malicious program. It can also send itself out to the entire address book of the PC’s owner, and turn it into a “zombie” machine sending out more spam.
Several e-mail viruses, which combine the worst aspects of spam and malicious software, have hit since last September. The two biggest recent attacks were the “Happy New Year” virus in December and the first Storm Worm attack in January.
The current Storm Worm spree began around 3 a.m. PDT on Thursday and cooled down in the early morning hours Friday. Initially, the messages contained subject lines including the word “love,” urging the users to click on a file attachment, which would install the virus. But soon, the subject lines began to mutate, giving users the impression that an e-mail was being sent by a tech support worker helping them avoid a virus. The size and names of the virus file also changed as e-mails were passed from person to person.
“These are probably efforts to avoid detection. It’s very sophisticated,” said Adam Swidler, Postini’s senior manager of solutions marketing.
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