A new worm, LiarVB-A, has found its way onto removable drives and is spreading information on HIV/AIDS to unsuspecting recipients.
Discovered by IT security and control firm Sophos, the worm spreads not only through removable devices, but also networks, creating a hidden file on infected computers.
Once the PC is connected to the network, the virus automatically runs and creates an HTML file with HIV/AIDS information on the PC's hard drive.
The file claims to be harmless, but Sophos distributor Netxactics CEO Brett Myroff disagrees with this.
"There is no such thing as a useful virus," says Myroff. "Companies should be allowed to decide for themselves what code runs on their computers rather than virus writers thinking it's okay to inject whatever code they like into corporate networks."
Myroff suggests the Windows autorun facility for removable devices be disabled to enable a virus check to be performed on them before use.
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