U.K.-based security vendor Sophos has issued a warning against the Crowt.a worm using breaking news headlines to trick recipients into opening attachments. The worm grabs its subject lines, message content, and attachment names from headlines from CNN's Web site. The worm's subject and attachment filename constantly change to mirror the top headline on CNN.com, while the e-mail message's text is also hijacked from CNN. Crowt-A also installs a backdoor Trojan horse that tries to log keystrokes on infected PCs and send data back to a remote user. Attackers often use these Trojans to take control of PCs and to steal personal information like bank passwords. "This latest ploy feeds on people's desire for the latest news," said Carole Theriault, a security consultant at Sophos, in a statement. "Many people subscribe to legitimate email news updates...virus writers are always looking for new tricks to entice users into running their malicious code."

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