The Stration worm spreads rapidly

Czech Seznam’s free email provider’s mail system has been flooded with a new version of the Stration worm. The virus has already appeared in Hungary and is able to block anti-virus software.

The Stration worm appeared on September 26 in Thailand and then caused a major outbreak in Italy. The classic mail worm, which disguises itself as a security update, spreads by attaching to e-mail messages that may have different subjects (such as Mail server report, Error, or Status).

Stration has the ability to disable permanent anti-virus protection. Thus, if a computer with an antivirus that does not have a worm protection description in its database becomes infected, the pathogen will be able to disable the antivirus system. All this significantly speeds up its spread and makes infected computers vulnerable to other viruses.

Last night, a new, hitherto unknown version of the pathogen triggered a wave of infection in the Czech Seznam mail system. While the rate of virus-infected emails was only 17% at 3 p.m., by 20 p.m., that rate had risen to 20%. According to the statistics of the Czech e-mail service provider, the wave of infection has almost completely subsided this morning, but it warns that some copies of the pathogen have also appeared in the free e-mail systems in Hungary.

ESET has released a free downloadable tool that can detect and remove the Stration worm. The software can be downloaded from the website www.nod32.hu.