CYBERSPACE — The religious have used a wide number of creative means to spread their faith’s good words over the centuries and, although often reviled for being filled with sin and filth, the internet has proven a huge help in connecting believers in the modern world. Now a new, and unwelcome, means for reaching out and touching the unwashed masses has arrived: a Trojan horse that claims moral high ground against pornographers — in the name of Allah.Whether created by a genuine Muslim with an attitude about porn or whether merely designed by a hacker hoping to piss off just about everybody while playing on international tensions, the Yusufali-A Trojan has been introducing the world to its particular form of terrorism during the past week, according to the security research experts at SophosLabs.

While many Trojans prefer to busy themselves in a person’s hard drive looking for sensitive information, when they’re not simply taking control of a system, this pest is on a moral mission. Yusufali-A keeps an eye on a user’s surfing habits and then hides web sites that it feels are objectionable. Adding insult to injury, the frustrated surfer is then presented with an inspirational quote from the Koran.

Gregg Mastoras, a senior security analyst with Sophos says that when words such as “sex” or even “exhibition” are entered as part of an URL, a message reading, in part, “Allah knows how ye move about and how ye dwell in your homes,” appears on the user’s screen.

Surfers who do not promptly close their browser or leave the site they were attempting to visit eventually receive a follow-up message reading, “Oh! NO I’m in the Cage” and then watch their computer log out without their assistance.

Fortunately, other than disrupting surfing habits and interfering with commerce and communication, Yusufali-A appears to do no real harm. The Trojan apparently infects systems running a Windows operating system and is transferred via an email attachment that must be clicked in order to activate.

Yusufali-A is blocked by up-to-date antivirus software, but those who have become infected can seek remedy at http://www.sophos.com/virusinfo/analyses/trojyusufalia.html.