E-mail worm pretends to have spy satellite images

SAN FRANCISCO, California (Reuters) -- A new e-mail worm has surfaced that purports to show screensavers of U.S. spy satellite pictures of Iraq or animations that are either patriotic or that mock President Bush, a computer security company warned Thursday.

The worm, dubbed Ganda-A, spreads by sending itself to e-mail addresses on an infected machine and tries to disable anti-virus and other security software and infect certain files on the hard disk, according to Sophos.

Ganda, which does not appear to be spreading and is rated low risk, sends e-mail in English or Swedish. It is signed by "Uncle Roger in Hornsand, Sweden," who complains in a message about being discriminated against in the Swedish school system, Sophos said.

Subject lines include: "Spy pics," "GO USA!!!!," "G.W Bush animation," and others like "Catlover," and "Disgusting propaganda."

Ganda also sends a message in Swedish to e-mail addresses apparently belonging to Swedish journalists, Sophos said.

After the September 11 attacks, a worm circulated that tricked computer users by pretending to contain images of the World Trade Center attack.


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