An initial wave of attacks was contained in emails with subject lines relating to the stormy weather and other news events such as the satellite shot out of the sky by the Chinese military.

Security firm Symantec has now raised the risk level of the 'Storm Worm' - which it has named Trojan.Peacomm - to a category three threat, "due to the speed and volume in which it is being aggressively spammed across the internet".

Category three means that the risk level is 'high', according to Symantec, and it is advising that surfers should update their anti-virus defences as soon as possible.

Meanwhile, another security firm have warned of Troj/Dorf-Fam, which it says is another Trojan that uses similar tactics to convince users to open attachments with names such as Full Clip.exe, Full News.exe, and Full Story.exe. The emails carry subject lines such as 'Russian missile shot down Chinese satellite' and 'Saddam Hussein safe and sound'.

"It's clear that the hackers behind these attacks are using breaking news stories to tempt computer users into clicking on the dangerous attachments. But if you launch the attached program you are putting your PC and your finances at risk - hackers will break in, steal and cause havoc if they gain access to your computer," said Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant at Sophos.

"The gang behind this criminal attack may be relying precisely on the fact that home users tend to be more laid back about updating their anti-virus protection," said Cluley.

Alyssa Myers from McAfee noted that the methods used were not new, but were proving to be extremely successful.

"For some reason this tactic is still proving successful. None of these techniques are particularly new or innovative... but due to the combination of huge numbers of new variants and social engineering tactics, it's working for these miscreants," said Myers.

http://www.sophos.com/
http://www.symantec.com/
http://www.mcafee.com/

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