I’ve stumbled upon the news about the latest outbreak of the Storm Worm (which is actually a Trojan-bearing e-mail) about 4 days ago. But I didn’t think it was that serious since Symantec didn’t have a bulletin yet during that time. PC World was one of the first to report it then. But now it’s a real threat and many computers have already been infected, spreading the infection even further.

Anyway, just a service announcement to avoid any adverse effect on your productivity, here are some points on how to deal with the Storm Worm.

Beware Windows users!

The Trojan infects Windows 95 and later including NT and Server 2003. No reports on Vista yet.

How does it infect systems

It’s a spam attachment that infects the computer when it’s downloaded and launched. It’s usually an EXE file around 29 KB. The filenames usually are Full Clip.exe, Full Story.exe, Video.exe, Read More.exe and other variations.

Here are some variations of the e-mail subjects of the spam.

• A killer at 11, he’s free at 21 and kill again!
• U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has kicked German Chancellor Angela Merkel
• British Muslims Genocide
• Naked teens attack home director.
• 230 dead as storm batters Europe.
• Re: Your text
• Radical Muslim drinking enemies’s blood.

How do I prevent infection

• Install an anti-virus, anti-spyware, and firewall.
• Update your security definitions.
• Avoid accessing e-mail with an EXE attachment.
• Notify your system/network administrator if you get such an e-mail in your office e-mail/network.

A more detailed FAQ can be found here: FAQ: Sheltering your systems from the Storm Worm