international news _ 27th April 2005
Record Label Friendly Illegal Computer Virus
A computer virus has been discovered by the anti virus company Sophos labs that is spread over the same peer to peer networks that have been made popular with the sharing of music and video files. The virus, dubbed Nopir B originated in France and disguises itself as a program for copying DVDs. When the program is run though after installation onto the host computer it displays an anti piracy message and attempts to delete all mp3 files on the host as well as certain program files.
The origin of the virus, like most, remains a mystery although some are suspicious that certain individuals or oragnisations within the music industry may have taken the fight against internet piracy into their own hands.
"The Nopir.B worm targets people it believes may be involved in piracy, but fails to discriminate between the true criminals and those who may have legally obtained MP3 files," said Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant for Sophos. "Whichever side of the fence you come down on in regards to Internet piracy, there's no debate about the criminal nature of this worm Ñ it's designed to inflict malicious damage on people's Windows computers."
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