E-mail virus exploits terrorist outrage
An e-mail virus that exploits the World Trade Centre tragedy, disguising itself as a call for peace, has been circulating on the internet.
Distribution of the new virus was low, said American researchers but they warned, however, that it could spread quickly because of its emotionally-charged subject.
The e-mail contains the attachment ‘‘WTC.exe’’ and a subject line that reads: ‘‘Peace between America and Islam".
The text of the message reads in part, ‘‘Let’s Vote To Live in Peace".
Like many other viruses, this one spreads by mailing copies of itself to addresses stored in Microsoft e-mail software.
Unlike others, however, the new virus causes more than a slowdown in internet traffic.
It deletes some files and overwrites some web pages stored on the hard drive.
According to computer security firms Trend Micro and Symantec, the virus overwrites web files it finds with the following message: ‘‘AmeRiCa ...Few Days WiLL Show You What We Can Do !!! It’s Our Turn ZaCkEr is So Sorry For You".
Other than the ‘‘WTC.exe’’ attachment, the e-mail message looks like hundreds of others that have circulated on the internet since the deadly attacks on the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon.
