Sober worm, the most prolific email worm to date, appears to be behind attempts to revive the German Nazi Party.
Washingtonpost.com reported that Security company, IDefense, published findings indicating that since 16 November 2005 millions of computers infected by the latest Sober worm variant have been so with the intention of spamming neo-Nazi propaganda.
Recent Sober variants masqueraded as FBI emails and similar investigative branches in Britain and Germany. Recipients who open the attached file are at risk of similar emails being forwarded from their email addresses contacts.
Earlier this year, a Sober variant forced infected computers to spew out spam emails calling for the reinstatement of the Nazi party, which is banned in Germany.
According to IDefense, the latest versions of Sober contain a secret code indicating that infected machines will download updated instructions for a spam run on 5 January 2005, a date coinciding with 87th anniversary of Nazi Part foundation.
Most email worms have an economic motive, but the Sober worm has been an instrument of “hacktivism,”: online crime that advocates ideology or agenda.
IDefense cautioned that whoever is behind the Sober worm has shown a remarkable ability to evade law enforcement, telling Washingtonpost.com “It takes a pretty brazen person to draw the attention of the world’s leading law enforcement agencies. This is a person or group that is dead set on getting their message across.”
