Tech Shout!

Beware! There is a new worm on the loose, and this time it’s literally on the loose. Experts have warned that a new worm called the ‘SillyFD-AA’ is spreading via USB sticks.

The worm SillyFD-AA installs itself onto systems and puts a message in Internet Explorer that reads ‘Hacked by 1BYTE’. It also installs an autorun.inf on any removable drive such as USB sticks or even the rather outdated floppy disks.

According to Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant for Sophos, “USB keys are becoming so cheap that marketing people are prepared to use them as ‘throwaways’ with the aim of securing sales leads.”

“Computer owners should tread very carefully when plugging an unknown device into their PC, however, as it could have malicious code planted on it,” Cluley added.

Once the USB drive is connected to another computer, the SillyFD-AA worm automatically installs itself on the new computer and repeats the exercise in an attempt to further spread.

Users are advised to turn off the Autorun feature in Windows so that removable devices such as USB keys and CD ROMs do not automatically launch when they are attached to a PC.

Experts have also advised that any storage device that is attached to a computer should be checked for viruses and other malware before actual use.

This technique of spreading a worm through removable disks actually mimics the very early methods of virus propagation when viruses were spread only via floppy disks.

But at that time, virus protection was easy, as users had to cover the indented tab on the floppy disk with a sticky tape.