Software provider Computer Associates has issued an early warning to computer users the world over to be wary when opening E-cards this Valentine’s season. The Win32/Waledac trojan is enjoying new life as a nasty download that will be soon spamming its way into your inbox, disguised as a Valentine’s Day themed card.
The trojan, once downloaded, sets up shop gathering and sharing your personal data with external information collecting servers. Once infected, your machine also may be used by foreign entities as a spam bot, and can even be used to spread the infected email to other computers. According to CA, the files to keep an eye out for are love.exe; onlyyou.exe; you.exe; youandme.exe; and meandyou.exe, but they do note that new files could be added to the mix at any time.
CA lists a few steps you can take to make sure that you keep you computer clear of viruses, among them is keeping you browser up to date with the latest updates and not downloading or running files you are not familiar with. During holiday periods, CA security teams have regularly seen an uptick in trojan laden spam, but there is good news. Vigilance in keeping your software updated and attentiveness to what files you are accessing, can go a long way to keep your computer free of trojans.
For more information on this threat and other future security risks, you should browse over to the CA Security Advisor Research Blog.
Isn't that horse used in the movie? The one where Brad Pitt starred in? Anyways, I have been recently hit by the trojan and it was a bad hit. Your post will surely help the others before they get hit with the virus. It is important to keep your computer secured.