War on Terror may include Targeted Worms

The TrendLabs Malware Blog reported today on a new internet worm called WORM_WALLA.B  The interesting thing about this new threat is that it specially targets Arabic/Persian speaking users. One of its first actions is to check users keyboard layout settings. If it’s not Arabic or Persian the programs exits.

“Detected as WORM_WALLA.B, this worm spreads copies of itself as an attachment to email messages with subject lines and message bodies mostly relating to current events from the said regions (About Iran, Pictures from Gazza, About the Israeli Intelligence, and All the Truth about the American intelligence among others), conforming to the sensational social engineering scheme that has recently become prevalent.”

I don’t think I’m the only one speculating on the source  of
this Trojan but I mention it because it indicates a possible new trend.

Just like we see targeted advertising, I suspect we’ll be seeing an increase in worms and trojans targeting a particular segment of the population.  Perhaps we’ll see something aimed directly at Hillary supporters or the kids who keep voting for Sanjaya.