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The anti-virus company Symantec has issued a warning about a new Trojan Horse
with a particularly devious way of stealing credit-card information.

The Trojan horse, known as kardphisher, presents itself as a message from
Microsoft Piracy Control. “Your copy of Windows was activated by another user,”
it says. “To help reduce software piracy, please reactivate your copy of Windows
now. We will ask you for billing details, but your credit card will NOT be
charged.”

Selecting “Yes” takes the user to a screen that asks for name and credit-card
information, which is transmitted to the hacker’s URL. Selecting “No” will cause
the Trojan horse to shut down the PC.

The message includes a link to Microsoft’s real piracy-control Web site to make
it look more legitimate.

Kardphisher can affect Windows 2000, 95, 98, Me, NT, XP and Windows Server 2003,
according to Symantec. It does not affect Windows Vista.

One element that makes the virus so convincing, according to an article at
PCWorld.com, is that “it plays off real-world behavior by Windows.”

“In some situations, such as after a user makes substantial hardware changes,
Windows XP will demand reactivation,” according to PCWorld.com. “Microsoft,
however, never demands any personal information, such as a credit card, during
activation.”

Keeping your anti-virus software up-to-date should keep you safe. For more
information on Kardphisher, go to tinyurl.yqd6we.