James Delahunty
22 Apr 2005 14:26
A new worm that has been discovered posing on P2P networks as DVD copying software has a bit of an anti-piracy twist to it. The worm, Nopir-B, searches through your computer for MP3 files and then deletes them. It also disables some system utilities and wipes .COM programs while it is displaying an anti-piracy picture. The virus, believed to have originated in France is spreading but very slowly and doesn't pose much of a risk other than wiping your music collection.
Whatever our views are on piracy, this virus is still of criminal nature. "The Nopir-B worm targets people it believes may be involved in piracy, but fails to discriminate between the true criminals and those who may have legally obtained MP3 files. Whichever side of the fence you come down on in regards to internet piracy, there's no debate about the criminal nature of this worm," said Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant for Sophos.
This is not the first virus to target music on infected PCs; the Klez-F worm spread around in 2002 and overwrote MP3 files on certain days. The Scrambler worm made MP3s sound like scratched records and the Mylife-G worm overwrote MP3 files with the words "my lIfE". This new Nopir-B worm will probably stop spreading very quickly, but just imagine other viruses like Blaster or Sasser were programmed to delete music files.
Source:
The Register