Osama Bin Laden may have been quiet for some time, but a virus named after him is still wreaking havoc in cyberspace.
E-mails promising pictures of the Saudi-born fugitive hung or captured continue to spread a destructive payload, warned computer experts.
"If you get an e-mail along the lines of 'Osama Bin Laden captured' or any attention-grabbing headline like that, trash it," said Sreekanth Yanamandra for RAS Infotech Ltd, based in Dubai Internet City which represents Finnish security company F-Secure.
The malicious Trojan, thought to have originated last year, has since assumed other variants.
As of Saturday, anti-virus company Symantec has discovered around 100 malicious codes spreading through the net from October 7, of which nearly a quarter were Trojans like the 'Bin Laden capture' virus.
The message isn't a virus by itself.
"It pretends to be a benign message but packs a dangerous payload and keeps getting forwarded by unsuspecting users who receive it," explained Gigi George of Microsoft partner Alpha Data.
Snopes.com, a site that monitors modern-day legends and hoaxes, confirmed the Bin Laden Trojan poses a real threat to computer users (http://www.snopes.com/computer/virus/osama.asp).
Trojans can be stopped by junk mail filters like NetIQ Mail Marshall.
Wriggling through your system
Virus attaches itself to a program or file so it can spread from one computer to another, leaving infections as it travels.
Almost all viruses are attached to an executable file, so the virus may exist inside a computer but it cannot infect the files unless the user runs or opens the program.
Trojan: A destructive program that masquerades as a benign application. Unlike viruses, it does not replicate but can be just as destructive. One of the most insidious types is a program that claims to rid your computer of viruses but instead introduces them.
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