World Cup worm menaces footy fans

A variant of the Sober worm is hoping to kick football fans' PCs offside by luring them with an email promising free tickets to the 2006 World Cup in Germany.

Messages are written in German or English and, if unsuspecting fans click on the attachment, Sober.P spreads by sending itself to addresses found on the victims' machines.

When sent in German, it can pretend to be an email from international football association FIFA, stating the recipient has won World Cup tickets. McAfee has rated the worm as a medium risk.

Jack Clark, security consultant at McAfee, said: "Once again we are seeing virus writers using popular events to lure people into opening attachments."

Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant for Sophos, added: "With so much fanaticism about football, there is a danger that many individuals machines will become infected."

Although Cluley said the virus is "not in the premier league like Blaster and SoBig"; he said it is accounting for over 62 per cent of all virus reports.

The German World Cup organisers are so concerned about the virus, that they are planning a press conference to warn fans that they might be targeted. There have been two other World Cup viruses - one in 2002 that posed as an onscreen scores ticker and another in 1998 that asked recipients who they thought would win the tournament.