Piggybacking On War

There’s a new virus out there called Ganda.

It’s a variant of the W32 viruses, and you can read a description of it here.

The weapon is the same, but the deployment is rather different.

What’s different about this one is that the enticement to click is primarily political in nature.

There’s about ten messages you could get from this virus. A couple of them are anti-war in nature:

Is USA always number one?

Some misguided people actually believe that an american life has a
greater value than those of other nationalities. Just have a look at
this pathetic screensaver and then you’ll know what i’m talking about.
All the best.

G.W Bush animation

Here’s the animation that the FBI wants to stop. Seems like the feds are trying to put an end to peoples right to say what they think of the US administration. Have fun!

Others appeal to pro-war sentiments.

GO USA !!!!

This screensaver animates the star spangled banner. Please support the
US administration in their fight against terror. Thanx a lot!

Spy pics

Here’s the screensaver i told you about. It contains pictures taken by one of the US spy satellites during one of it’s missions over iraq. If you want more of these pic’s you know where you can find me. Bye!

If you prefer thinking about Nazis, this virus has both ends covered:

Nazi propaganda?

This screensaver has been banned in Germany. It contains a number of animated symbols that can be related to the nazi culture. What do you think, is it a legitimate ban or not? Please answer asap. Thanx!

Disgusting propaganda

Hello! My 12 year old doughter received this screensaver on a CDROM that was sent to her through advertising. I find it disturbing that children are now being targets of nazi organizations. I would appreciate to hear from you on this matter, as soon as possible. Thank you.

If you are inclined to believe the Axis of Evil is centered in Redmond, no problem:

LINUX

Are you a windows user who is curious about the linux environment? This
screensaver gives you a preview of the KDE and GNOME desktops. What’s
more, LINUX is a free system, meaning anyone can download it.

And finally, for the gentler souls among us:

Catlover

If you like cats you’ll love this screensaver. It’s four animated kittens running around on the screen. Contact me for more clipart. Have fun! 😉

The person who did this apparently didn’t put too much thought about the prospects of getting caught, since the virus also sends a message to various emails associated with Swedish media saying that the Swedish school system is discriminating against him, apparently due to his animal-rights views. It should not be too hard to track down a 14-15 year old animal rights zealot.

However, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that those who might want to do more damage to their political enemies than calling them names could use this mechanism to come up with viruses with messages that would appeal to those enemies. Especially in times like these.

I grant you, the average virus writer is not too politically sophisticated.

But it only takes one.

Email Ed