Angry in the Great White North
Don't open emails from the CIA or the FBI
Monday, November 28, 2005 at 12:17 PM

Read other posts by Steve Janke published by the National Post
Leader

Unless, of course, you routinely get emails from the CIA or the FBI.

But for the rest of us, there is an email worm circulating that preys on natural human curiousity:

The latest Sober worm, first spotted over the weekend, has generated the vast majority of virus-laden e-mail traffic in the past 24 hours and could cause problems for corporate e-mail gateways, security companies said.

This variant of Sober generates e-mails that purport to be from the CIA or FBI. These messages tell the recipient they have been looking at illegal Web sites and should answer some questions in the e-mail's attachment. If the attachment is opened, the computer is infected, and the virus sends copies of itself to any e-mail addresses found on the hard drive.

So don't worry. Visiting the website of the Conservative Party to study their platform in the hours before an election call might not be something that the Liberal government wants you to do, but it's not illegal.

Anyway, the FBI is not likely to be interested in what you are doing online.

Unless, possibly, your name is Alfonso Gagliano.

[Hat tip to TG]

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