Hackers lure in prey with David Beckham virus

13 October 2004 18:40 GMT / By Stuart Miles

David Beckham has been accused of many things in life, and now he can add computer virus to that list.

Hackers attempting to capitalise on the popularity of England's footballer are attempting to trick internet users into downloading what they believe to be sleazy photographs of the football star. What they are in fact downloading is the latest virus.

Over the last couple of days thousands of messages have appeared in internet chat rooms offering people the chance to see the images that don't exist. What does exist however is a link that will send you to a start suggesting you should start downloading a piece of Trojan software on your computer.

Clicking on the URL will not infect a user's PC but downloading the fake image file from there will infect it.

Users who do decide to click on the website address at the bottom of the message risk downloading a piece of Trojan software on to their computer.
Experts say it is a variant of the Hackarmy Trojan.

Full tags

Software, Online, Viruses And Malware, David Beckham