By John Leyden
Published Monday 5th September 2005 16:08 GMT

Virus writers have created a Trojan horse which tries to disrupt visits the pornographic websites by displaying messages from the Koran.

The low-risk Yusufali-A Trojan horse monitors the websites Windows users are visiting. If the malware sees one of a set of trigger words (such as "teen", "sex" or "penis") in the url it minimises the window so the user cannot see its content and displays a message from the Koran instead. The message, partly written in Arabic, contains the following English text:
Yusufali: Know, therefore, that there is no god but Allah, and ask forgiveness for they fault, and for the men and women who believe: for Allah knows how ye move about and how ye dwell in your homes.

"Unlike other malware, it appears this Trojan horse isn't trying to steal money or confidential information, but acting as a moral guardian instead - blocking the viewing of websites it determines are unsavoury," said Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant for Sophos. "Of course, it's possible for the Trojan horse to make mistakes and block sites that are not pornographic - such as medical sites, or social sites designed for teenagers."

Once the message is displayed the malware performs a variety of other actions before forcing infected users to shutdown. All very disconcerting but there's no need for undue alarm since the Yusufali-A Trojan is not yet in the wild. It's unclear whether the malware was written as a joke, or as a serious attempt to clean up the habits of internet users.

Malware featuring an Islamic theme is rare but not unprecedented. Previous examples have include the Mawanella worm which highlighted the friction between Muslims and Buddhists in Sri Lanka and the Cycle worm which contained a message about life in Iran.

Source

just

You took the right out of my mouth.

I dont know if this is bad or good

How bloody rude! If people want to check out some porn, why should they be stopped by some Islamic freak that should be shot?!

you didn't have do say islamic freak, like it made it more of an insult.

should be for a good cause but a very bad idea

oh yeah lets waste our time shooting this guy while others steal money etc...

It IS an insult. and yes, lets still shoot him/her, give the others an example.

since when is being islamic an insult? I must if missed something.

*sighs* Calling them a FREAK is the insult. Just they are using their religion as an excuse to create havoc on others trying to do their own thing.

Hahaha, I think this is hilarious. He has no right doing this because not everyone considers pornography offensive, but it's still funny.

yeah I get it that's not what I meant though but nevermind.

The person/people who made this don't have any right to actively force their opinions or beliefs on others; while they may have good intent they aren't going around it the right way.

Hmmm...that explains it...that was really wierd...

Oh...ummm...wait...nevermind...I heard of this happening to other people...

Yeah that's it...

Your a little devil aren't you Fluffy!!!

I love that smiley...it's gotten me written all over it.

HA, parents could install some sort of similar program to stop their children looking at those sites, but without the religious content unless they wanted it.

That's

It reminds me of someone I used to know who (claimed) he started a website which had all the calling cards of a pornographic site, and when anyone clicked on the link to open it, it was actually a Christian site, which also had about 30 pop-ups advocating a change of heart.

I'm not sure if I ever really believed him though.

Regards, PA