In late January, an email worm called Nyxem.E started spreading
in computers around the globe but its main payload is yet to drop.
Nyxem is also known as Blackworm, Kama Sutra or Mywife. The Common
Malware Enumeration (CME) reference for it is CME-24. For those
computers infected by Nyxem.E, next Friday and every third day of
the month will see the worm replacing the content of a broad range
of user's files with a text string "DATA Error [47 0F 94 93 F4
K5]". Among these files are: DOC, XLS, MDB, MDE, PPT, PPS, ZIP,
RAR, PDF, PSD and DMP. The destructive deadline of the Nyxem.E worm
is, however, based on the clock of the infected machine meaning
that the worm has already claimed its first victims.
Speaking about the Nyxem worm and the initiative to combat it,
Chief Research Officer, Mikko Hypponen said: “There are as many as
300,000 computers that are infected – largely in Turkey, Peru and
India but also in other countries around the world. They will feel
the full force of Nyxem in near time if they don’t take action.”&
amp; amp; amp; amp; amp; amp; amp; amp; amp; amp; amp; amp; amp;
amp; amp; amp; amp; amp; amp; amp; amp; amp; amp; amp; amp; amp;
amp; amp; amp; amp; amp; amp; amp; amp; amp; amp; amp; amp; amp;
amp; amp; amp; amp; amp; amp; amp; amp; amp; amp; amp; amp; amp;
amp; amp; amp; amp; amp; amp; lt; /p>
Hypponen continued that Nyxem’s capacity to seed destruction in
computers without any clear motive or commercial gain was unusual
in modern malware but demonstrated that black hats still displayed
a wanton desire to cause havoc as they did in earlier years.
F-Secure has shipped a free tool to disinfect machines hit by
Nyxem. It is available from
http://www.f-secure.com/v-descs/nyxem_e.shtml
About F-Secure Corporation
F-Secure Corporation protects consumers and businesses
against computer viruses and other threats from the Internet and mobile
networks. We want to be the most reliable provider of security services in the
market. One way to demonstrate this is the speed of our response. According to
independent studies in 2004, 2005 and 2006 our response time to new threats is
significantly faster than our major competitors. Our award-winning solutions are
available for workstations, gateways, servers and mobile phones. They include
antivirus and desktop firewall with intrusion prevention, antispam and
antispyware solutions, as well as network control solutions for Internet Service
Providers. Founded in 1988, F-Secure has been listed on the Helsinki Exchanges
since 1999, and has been consistently growing faster than all its publicly
listed competitors. F-Secure headquarters are in Helsinki, Finland, and we have
regional offices around the world. F-Secure protection is also available as a
service through major ISPs, such as France Telecom, TeliaSonera, PCCW and
Charter Communications. F-Secure is the global market leader in mobile phone
protection provided through mobile operators, such as T-Mobile and Swisscom and
mobile handset manufacturers such as Nokia. The latest real-time virus threat
scenario news are available at the F-Secure Data Security Lab weblog at http://www.f-secure.com/weblog/
For further information, please contact:
F-Secure Corporation
Mikko Hypponen, Chief Research Officer
PL 24
FIN-00181 Helsinki
GSM +358 400 648 180
