A virus that masquerades as a vaccine has been stealing passwords from subscribers to Fujitsu Ltd’s InfoWeb internet service in Japan. According to Network Associates Japan inc, InfoWeb customers have received emails warning them of a password copying virus called TX-500 and recommending that they immediately inoculate their systems against it by downloading a free anti-virus program. Users that follow this recommendation are actually downloading the virus itself.
The virus is known to only infect computers running Windows operating systems and the only reported encounters with the virus have been in Japan. Network Associates has released a scanning program to diagnose infected computers, but do not yet have a vaccine. G-Search, InfoWeb’s service operator whose authentic telephone and fax numbers appear with the bogus warning, says it is investigating the matter and will take legal action against the perpetrators if they are traced. Around 68 users are known to have been infected, but only 10 of them had executed the false vaccine program by the time they were contacted by G-Search.
