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New worm invades your privacy

'SirCam' attaches itself to a document in the Microsoft Office directory and then sends it to all in the address book. Just hope it's not a personal letter.
Written by Megan McAuliffe, Contributor
A worm has been detected in the wild with a new set of tricks, attaching itself to a document in the Microsoft Office directory and sending it to everyone in the users address book--lets hope the document isn't of a particularly personal nature.

According to anti-virus company Symantec, the worm, known as "SirCam", is different to the usual Trojan in that it randomly attaches itself to a document in the users Microsoft Office directory and sends it on to everyone in the address book.

The subject line of the email is the name of the file the worm attached itself to.

"There is a certain amount of privacy issues associated with it, it's not good if you've got a document about someone's performance and it gets sent around," a spokesperson for Symantec told ZDNet.

Originating in South America, the virus has turned up in the United States, with a few reports of infection. It has not been detected in the Asia-Pacific region.

Symantec has the virus currently rated as a medium risk.

"It's not a new technique, but we don't see it very often," the spokesperson said.

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