Sophos, a world leader in corporate anti-virus protection, has received several reports from computer users concerned about the brand new Chet worm (W32/Chet-A), an email aware virus which exploits interest in the first anniversary of the September 11th terrorist attacks on the US.

The Chet worm arrives in the form of an email attachment called 11September.exe. The accompanying text claims that the FBI and Al-Qaeda worked together to plan last year's terrorist attacks in New York. The email text coaxes computer users into double clicking on the viral attachment using suggestions that it includes photographs of Osama bin Laden and the US Secretary of State Security involved in 'friendly dialogue'.

"The Chet worm author is the latest to use psychological tricks to try to dupe users into opening malicious code, however, this in probably the sickest and lamest trick to date," said Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant, Sophos Anti-Virus. "The implausibility of the allegations contained in the worm's email will hopefully mean most people will instantly recognise this as suspicious."

Sophos has not received any reports of the Chet worm in the wild, but reminds users to practice safe computing and keep their anti-virus software regularly updated. Users are particularly reminded not to launch attachments received via email.

Further information (including graphics of the Chet worm in action) can be found at
http://www.sophos.com/virusinfo/analyses/w32cheta.html

Some simple to implement safe computing guidelines can be found at http://www.sophos.com/virusinfo/articles/safehex.html