Dubai, UAE. DEC, 15TH 2004- Symantec, the world's leading information security provider, today warned of a new worm threatening computer users in the approach to the Christmas season. The worm, which has it's own mail engine which it uses to spread, arrives in an email titled 'Merry Christmas' in a variety of languages, and once activated can open a backdoor on the users computer that can allow criminals access to the files on user's hard drives.
Due to an increase in submission rates, Symantec has upgraded this worm known as W32.Erkez.D (also known as Zafi by other security vendors) to a Level 3 threat. To date, Symantec has received more than 81 Corporate submissions and 49 consumer submissions of this threat worldwide. The worm opens a backdoor on TCP port 8181 and uses its own SMTP engine to spread through email, may attempt to lower security settings, close programs and open a backdoor.
"We realise that the digital age has meant that many expatriates have family across the world, and may be depending on email for their Christmas greetings and news from loved ones. We would urge everyone to take extra care when opening emails from anyone, as the email address is likely to be spoofed, which means that it may seem to belong to someone you know. Users should update their antivirus definitions and ensure that their firewall configuration is on strong settings with the port 8181 blocked, and avoid opening attachments from any address they are doubtful about." Commented Kevin Isaac, Symantec Regional Director, Middle East & Africa
For further information please visit: http://securityresponse.symantec.com
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Aimee Peters
PR Manager
Symantec Middle East & Africa
Cell: +971 50 558 0340
Tel: +2711 797 6626
Tel: +9714 390 1795
www.symantec.com/press
Or Yasser Fathy,
Tarek Lasheen,
Arabia PR
Tel: + 971 4 391 12 01,
Fax: + 9714 390 45 11
arabiapr@dubaimediacity.net
© Press Release 2004
