SKIRMISHER

I was just talking about MS Word when this newsflash came in. Microsoft said there’s a huge monster that’s faster than a bullet and currently roams the globe and eats children and dorks opening their emails.

The monster’s an infected PowerPoint file that, if opened, installs keylogging software on your computer. But the real bad news: it might take Microsoft weeks to produce a security patch for it.

The bug that the malicious hackers behind the virus have exploited has been found in PowerPoint 2000, 2002 and 2003.

Security experts said the virus was aimed at companies in Asia because Chinese characters are used in the subject line of the e-mail the booby-trapped files are attached to and in name of the poisoned PowerPoint presentation.

The presentation purports to be 18 humorous slides about love between men and women.

The PowerPoint presentation is attached to an e-mail that arrives from a Google GMail address.

Anyone opening the PowerPoint file will trigger the virus that installs a keylogger that records everything typed on an infected machine. It also opens up a backdoor into that machine that the creators of the virus are likely to exploit to gather the recorded keystrokes or to install other malicious programs.

Once a machine has been compromised the virus installs a blank version of the poisoned presentation to hide evidence that a computer has been taken over.

It’s in these ugly times when you’re overwhelmed with the desire to stand by the dormer window, sigh like a helpless damsel over the blooming daisies, and pine for that distant time when everybody will be using open-source software.

POISONED POWERPOINT ATTACKS USERS [BBC]

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