Italian Senate laid low by gay porn virus

[LadyGardenSnake]

According to the Italian news site ANSA, the Italian Senate has been plagued by a computer virus that displays pornographic images on computer monitors for the past two days.
The attack was discovered on Monday morning, when a variant of the Rbot worm caused unusual traffic volumes across the network and blocked access to a number of resources. More unsettling effects included some computers of the displaying gay hardcore pornography on the monitors situated in the Senate's offices in Palazzo Madama.

Since then, many staff have been unable to use word-processing or email applications or access the Internet.

There has been speculation that the attack was in retaliaton over the dismissal of the Senate's Vice President Dario Mattiello, following revelations surrounding photographs depicting him at a gay nightspot in Rome.

'Mattiello's firing has angered some in the gay community, but it's impossible to say yet if it was the motive for this attack. Whatever their motives, hackers have shown a bare-faced cheek by planting these homosexual images at the heart of Italy's political establishment,' said Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant for Sophos.

Aside from causing a few red faces, the Rbot worms often have more sinister aspects such as backdoor components allowing a hacker remote access to a compromised PC