To ALL; Supposed Hackers attack AOL, AOL now sell $49 program to its
users to pervent the attack..LOL
search.washingtonpost.com
By Rajiv Chandrasekaran
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, June 28, 1997; Page D01
The Washington Post
America Online Inc. subscribers are receiving a growing
number of electronic mail messages that contain secret
programs that could let hackers use the subscribers' accounts
on the computer network, AOL and a leading computer
security group warned yesterday.
The National Computer Security Association estimated that
"several thousand" subscribers have received the messages, but
said that an accurate count was impossible. The service has
approximately 8 million members.
The messages offer such things as a free pornographic picture
or a piece of software that will boost a computer's
performance. To get the gift, it invites the recipient to open a
file that is attached to the message.
When the file is opened, it unleashes a program that
surreptitiously collects the subscriber's account name and
password and sends them back to the hacker.
AOL is warning its users not to open attached files that end
with ".zip," ".exe" or ".scr" if they do not know who sent the
message. The security group and AOL have detected about
three dozen different versions of the files, most of which have
one of these three file suffixes.
"This is a very real threat," said Richard Power, director of the
San Francisco-based Computer Security Institute. "People
need to educate themselves to the dangers of cyberspace. If
you found a package on your front step and you weren't
expecting it, you would be suspicious, and your attitude toward
unsolicited attachments should be the same. You should look at
them as letter bombs."
With access to an individual's account, a hacker can purchase
goods online that will be billed to the account owner, can
impersonate the subscriber and can send additional "Trojan
horse" programs.
The National Computer Security Association said the attacks
do not mean AOL has a unique security problem or flaws in its
software. It said the volume of such so-called Trojan horse
messages to AOL subscribers has increased markedly in
recent weeks, prompting yesterday's public warning.
The hackers also have diversified their pitches in the past few
weeks: Previously, they were offering solely pornography, but
now the messages say the file contains computer utility
programs that enhance one's printer, modem and AOL
software, officials said.
"They all have a pretense," Peter S. Tippett, the Carlisle,
Pa.-based security association's president, said of the
messages. "They send out a girlie picture and sometimes you
actually see one on the screen. But like the real Trojan story,
the gift isn't the story, it's what's inside."
Trojan horse programs have proliferated on the Internet for
years. Unlike viruses, which replicate themselves and are
passed along from user to user, Trojan horses generally are
sent from a hacker directly to the recipient. Such programs are
not detected by most virus-checking programs.
In this case, Tippett said, a group of hackers with an antipathy
toward AOL may be sharing the Trojan horse program with
others in the underground programming community. Although
each hacker designs unique offers, he said about 80 percent of
the AOL Trojan horse files recovered so far have used the
identical underlying program.
He theorized that the hackers are getting victims' e-mail
addresses from AOL's member directory and monitoring
participants in the service's "chat rooms."
Precise estimates of the number of victims are difficult, because
the Trojan horse may go undetected by most users unless they
incur charges for items they did not purchase or find they have
been impersonated.
AOL's computer security chief, Tatiana Gau, said the service
does not know how many subscribers have been affected. She
would not disclose how many complaints the company has
received about the programs.
AOL has begun sending warning notices to its subscribers and
is offering special anti-virus software for $49.95 that will detect
any Trojan horse programs that AOL's staff has identified, Gau
said.
The computer security association, which began working on
the problem last week, found out about the programs by
monitoring Internet discussions between hackers, Tippett said.
The security group has been unable to trace the hackers
because the programs direct the name and password
information through "anonymous remailers," computers that
obscure the return address of messages.
c Copyright 1997 The Washington Post Company
Isn't it Nice that they can not trace any of the trojan horses;
and have this "protection" program for $49 "all ready" in the
wings for their subscibers to buy...who do they think they are kidding !
Great sign up for AOL..( for life as you can't get unsigned ) then
buy our protection program for another $49...and if you want to
play games we have a small "hourly fee" that will painlessly be
added to to credit card, just click here..opps , how do I find
the undo..sorry no undo available..ain't AOL wonderful..
Jim
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