New variant of Sober worm spreads German spam

German police are hunting a virus-writer who was bombarding the internet with vast numbers of worm-infected, German-language e-mails, and security firms advised web users to update anti-virus software fast.

State police in Munich said the worm was first spotted on Monday and reports were coming in early Tuesday from Switzerland that it had arrived there. The virus spreads using computer “address books”, so early victims were people who exchange e-mails with Germans.

Anti-virus experts at Kaspersky Labs dubbed the three new variants Sober-U, -V and -W, saying they were a development of the Sober worm that caused havoc two years ago and came back a year ago to rain German-language, neo-Nazi propaganda on the internet.

Infected mails have subject lines that include “Ihre eMail!” and claim that a certain recently sent e-mail cannot be delivered.

Another anti-virus company, H+BEDV, said it was noting “alarmingly high” infection rates. It has already updated its anti-virus product. Kaspersky called the attack an “epidemic” in German-speaking areas.

The virus-hunters said the damage was done when mail programs opened a file attached to the infected e-mails. The operating systems Windows 95, 98, ME, NT, 2000, XP and Windows Server 2003 were all vulnerable.

Germany has stepped up its war on viruses, with flying squads of police computer gurus seeking clues to the culprits. (dpa)