Among the 40 messages awaiting me in my Inbox upon my return from Thanksgiving vacation this morning was this spirited attempt at spreading a worm via a zipped attachment named list.zip. Here’ the email’s text:
From: Department@cia.gov
Subject: You visit illegal websitesDear Sir/Madam,
we have logged your IP-address on more than 30 illegal Websites.
Important:
Please answer our questions!
The list of questions are attached.Yours faithfully,
Steven Allison++++ Central Intelligence Agency -CIA-
++++ Office of Public Affairs
++++ Washington, D.C. 20505++++ phone: (703) 482-0623
++++ 7:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., US Eastern time
Illegal websites? I wasn’t aware there was such a thing here; this isn’t China, after all. I suppose the content on a site could be illegal, like if someone’s abusing trademarks, selling bootleg Disney sweatshirts or spreading viciously libelous rumors about Lou Diamond Phillips, but a site itself being illegal? The worm authors could have cast a wider net with a subject-line like “You visit porn websites” or “You visit cretin Flash-animated sites that your Mom and coworkers email you links for.”
Also, the phone number is a legitimate one for the CIA’s public affairs/press relations office; when you call it, a recording says, in effect, to just delete the damn email and stop bothering Steve. Ha ha!