Bastille Day 2011: Malware Alert

Bastille Day Spam: C'est Très Mal

This Bastille Day, heed the warning of Sophos and avoid a malicious email going around with the subject line "Bastille Day" or "Bastille Day Activities".

The email contains an .rar file which, when unpacked by your PC, presents two files. One is a plaintext message opened in Notepad, with some neutral text about Bastille Day celebrations. In the background, though, the other file is also opened: the WindowsUpdate.exe malware, which Sophos Labs' test machine identified as Trog/Agent-SNH.

This is the text of the message (yes, it sounds weird, and, yes, it's in English for some reason):

Bastille Day Festival Just Several days Away

Don't forget to mark your calendar for the biggest French festival of the year -- the 9th Annual Bastille Day festival on July 10, 2011, from noon to 8:00 p.m.

The festival features live music all day long, with an evening headliner act of "Le Jazz" with the Patrick Lamb Band as well as performances by the Portland Ballet and Portland Opera.

The popular beer and wine garden will feature Lillet apéritifs, Kronenbourg beer, and Georges Duboeuf wine; look for a whole block of food booths as well.

Visitors will enjoy shopping the crafts and vendor booths and handcrafted items, including original art. Children will enjoy the kids activity area, where they can do crafts, spin the wheel for prizes, learn how to play pétanque, or how to hula hoop.

Well, you won't have time to hula hoop if you're busy reformatting your PC.