This definitely qualifies as quirky. Experts at SophosLabs, have discovered a Trojan horse that seeks out and wipes movies and MP3 music tracks that it believed infected computers are illegally distributing via file-sharing networks.
The Troj/Erazer-A Trojan horse scours folders used for peer-to-peer file-sharing peer-to-peer for AVI, MP3, MPEG, WMV, GIF, ZIP and other files. If files are found by the Trojan it wipes them, and plants a copy of itself in the folder using tempting names such as game.exe, goporn.exe, nero7.exe and officexpcrack.exe.
"The Erazer Trojan is a vigilante worthy of a Charles Bronson movie, taking the law into its own hands. However, it's perfectly possible for the Trojan to aim poorly and wipe out innocent files too," said Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant for Sophos. "The Erazer Trojan targets internet users it believes are involved in piracy, but fails to discriminate between the true criminals and those who may have MP3 music files or home movies that they have created themselves. Malware is not the way to fight internet piracy."
True weirdness. I've seen this story a few places today and I just have to wonder who built it? From the list of file extensions that Sophos has released, the trojan seems to have a serious bent for destroying media files. Is this a case of independent vigilante justice or could this be the latest anti-piracy scheme from the cartel?
To be fair, no one is accusing the RIAA, MPAA or any other official body of anything. I, however, do imagine that reading this in any press today gave a few record company execs a little bounce in their step.
I would suggest all users ensure they have up to date anti virus software, and hold a back up of their files, this should be done at all times anyway, but never hurts to remind folks!!!
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