New Sober Spam

A number of virus-watcher Web sites are warning today that a new variant of the Sober worm has reared its head in e-mail inboxes worldwide.

While this doesn't seem to be a serious threat to the savvy computer user (i.e., anyone who doesn't click on suspicious e-mail attachments or uses some kind of e-mail scanning software), it never hurts to remind readers that even in the age of spear phishing and giant botnets, the good old methods from the golden age of spam can still trip up the unwary.

The blog at Finnish security firm F-Secure shows a screen shot of the e-mail, which claims to be from an old classmate and asks you if you are the person in the picture below ... and of course, clicking on the "picture" unleashes the virus.

As always, be careful with e-mail attachments. Most e-mail viruses and worms piggyback on messages that seem to be from someone you know. Use an antivirus program that scans incoming e-mails, or consider submitting the file to a free online virus scanning service.