Trojan horse puts users offside

Spam targets football fans' love of the game

Football loving computer users have been warned of a Trojan horse that poses as a wall chart for the coming World Cup tournament.

The Haxadoor-IN Trojan horse has been spammed out via a link in an email message for fans wishing to follow their favourite teams.

SophosLabs said the emails have all been in German, but hackers could use other languages to increase the number of potential victims.

Senior technology consultant Graham Cluley said: ‘Malware authors are playing on keen interest and football spirit to try and infect as many people as possible, in an attempt to seize control, steal from, and spy on innocent users' computers.’

The virus, spyware and spam analysis centre said it is not the first time hackers have targeted the World Cup, with ticket offers and score updates used to entrap users previously.