Experts: ‘Obama Worm’ is Probably a Student’s Prank

January 30, 2009 - 2:51 am | 9 views

A new Internet worm that displays an image of President Obama is likely a prank by a student, several security experts speculated on Thursday.

Walling Data, a distributor of AVG security software, said the worm it discovered on computers at an Illinois grade school spreads via external devices like USB drives and network shares. Once a week, on Mondays, it displays a photo of President Obama’s face in the lower right corner of screens on infected computers, but otherwise appears to be more of a nuisance than a threat.

obama-worm

Roger Thompson, owner of Thompson Security Labs who said he was informed about the worm from AVG, wrote on his Thompson Cyber Security Labs blog a note to administrators at the school where the worm was found: “There’s some chance one of your students wrote it. Find your smartest, geekiest, dweebiest kid, and look hard at him. Remember, the geek shall inherit the earth.”

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