“A computer virus that poses as a Shockwave movie and urges
victims to install the Linux operating system has infected at least
four Fortune 500 companies according to antivirus firms. Known as
“Prolin,” or pro-Linux, the bug politely places instructions on how
to recover from infections on the victim’s computer. Experts are
concerned that it might spread quickly around the Internet….”
“It renames all JPG and ZIP files on the victim’s computer with
the appendage “change atleast now to LINUX.” It then drops a text
file called MESSAGEFORU.TXT, which offers the following advice:
“
Hi, guess you have got the message. I have kept a
list of files that I have infected under this. If you are smart
enough just reverse back the process. i could have done far better
damage, i could have even completely wiped your harddisk. Remember
this is a warning
&
get it sound and clear
…
–
The
Penguin.
”
“The bug spreads in Melissa-like fashion, sending itself to
everyone in the victim’s address book. When that’s finished, it
apparently calls home and reports in, sending a note to an e-mail
address presumably owned by the author. The subject line of that
note is “Job complete,” and the message body says “Got yet another
idiot.”