Pithaly

PandaLabs, Panda Security's laboratory for detecting and analyzing malware, has detected 2 new worms, Nuwar.OL and Valentin.E, which use the topic of St. Valentine's Day to spread.

"Year after year we see the appearance of several malware strains that use St Valentine's Day as bait to attract users", explains Luis Corrons, Technical Director of PandaLabs. "This indicates that cyber-crooks are still reaping the benefits of this technique and many people still fall into the trap."
Nuwar.OL arrives on computers by email with subjects like "I Love You Soo Much", "Inside My Heart" or " You In My Dreams". The text of the email includes a link to a website that downloads the malicious code. The page is very simple and looks like a romantic greeting card, with a large pink heart.

Once it has infected a computer, the worm sends out a large amount of emails to the infected user's contacts, in order to spread. This also creates a heavy load on networks and slows down the computer.

Valentin.E is very similar to this. Like the Nuwar worm, it spreads by email in messages with subjects like "Searching for true Love" or "True Love" and an attached file called "friends4u". If the targeted user opens the file, a copy of the worm gets downloaded on the user's computer.

The malicious code installs on the computer as a file with the .scr extension. If the user runs it, Valentin.E shows a new desktop background to trick them, while it makes several copies of itself on the computer. Then, the worm sends out emails with copies of itself from the infected computer to spread and infect more users.

Providing tips to avoid falling victim to one of these malicious codes, PandaLabs suggests users not to open any emails or run attached files that come from unknown sources. They also advise not to click any links included in email messages, even though they may come from reliable sources. Instead, they recommend type out the link in the address bar.

PandaLabs recommends staying on alert for files that claim to be Valentine's greeting cards, romantic videos, etc.