Virus targets Skype users

By Lawrence Casiraya
INQUIRER.net
Last updated 03:37pm (Mla time) 04/17/2007

MANILA, Philippines -- Skype users, beware of instant messages promising a glimpse of a model in high heels.

Anti-virus firm Sophos has reported the existence of the "Mal/Pykse-A" worm that spreads via Skype instant messages, posing as a link to a photograph of a young woman.

Clicking on the link displays an image of a scantily clad model wearing stiletto heeled shoes, but only after infecting the PC with a virus that installs the worm.

"Once it's up and running, the Pykse worm attempts to connect to a number of remote Web sites, presumably in an attempt to generate advertising revenue for them by increasing their number of 'hits," according to Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant for Sophos.

The ploy is seen as another way by which hackers are trying to make money off users unwittingly using infected PCs.

Remote sites connected to by the worm currently contain content referencing "The Living Africa" ripped from a legitimate site: library.thinkquest.org.

Some of the sites include an invisible frame, which sucks in content from online advertising companies.

Others do not contain advertising content, and seem to contain just mirrors of the legitimate page. However, they could be updated by hackers in the future to contain malicious content, Sophos said.

Sophos noted that there have been a number of worms in the past that have spread via Skype instant messages. None of them, however, have been particularly widespread compared to most virus outbreaks.