Nyxem starts countdown
Posted in Anti-virus companies are advising that everyone scan their machines before February 3, when the destructive virus known as Nyxem will delete a multitude of filetypes.
The virus is also known as Blackmal, MyWife, Kama Sutra, Grew and CME-24.
The mass mailing malware tries to entice users through social engineering efforts into opening an attached file promising pornographic material in an e-mail message. If the recipient opens the file, the malware sends itself to all the contacts that are contained in the system’s address book. The malware may also spread over writeable network shares on systems that have blank administrator passwords.
The virus will wait till the 3rd of each month to wreak its havoc.
February 3, 2006 is the first time this malware is expected to permanently corrupt the content of specific document format files. The malware also modifies or deletes files and registry keys associated with certain computer security-related applications. This prevents these applications from running when Windows starts.
Files of the following types will be deleted: DMP, DOC, XLS, MDB, MDE, PDF, PPS, PPT, PSD, RAR and ZIP.
Please update your Anti-virus definitions and scan your system before February 3, 2006.
