FYI - Many ISP and business filters are kicking back or quarantining any mail that has the word virus (or spam) in the subject line. Consequently virus information from me will now have just a "V" in subject line. Please do NOT post virus warnings to the list. Send them to me, I will check them out and post to the list if I find it necessary. Right now this one seems to be mainly going through the business community and the risk is rated as low but if you are a "news" junkie beware! Pat Mount List Admin Technology New virus masquerades as news headlines Friday, January 21, 2005 Posted: 10:19 AM EST (1519 GMT) (CNN) -- Researchers have identified a new computer virus that masquerades as news headlines from CNN's Web site. Sophos, an anti-virus firm, says the virus -- identified as Crowt-A -- pulls headlines, subject lines and other content from CNN.com. Once opened, the virus can then scan the user's address book and try to email itself to those users. The virus' subject line and attachment share the same name, Sophos researchers say, but change continually to match headlines from CNN.com's home page. In addition to emailing itself to other users, the virus also installs a "backdoor Trojan function," according to Sophos. This function can pick up and send data such as keystrokes to a remote user -- a practice sometimes used by hackers to obtain sensitive information such as passwords. Side effects * Allows others to access the computer * Sends itself to email addresses found on the infected computer * Deletes files off the computer * Steals information * Forges the sender's email address Aliases * WORM_CROWT.A *W32/Crowt-A http://www.sophos.com/virusinfo/analyses/w32crowta.html