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WARNING...Doomsday Virus
RugerNiner
Member Posts: 12,636 ✭✭✭
I just got done watching NBC News and they gave a warning that if you don't have the latest Anti-Virus software that you shouldn't even go on the Internet on SuperBowl Sunday.
My Update ran out a month ago.
Below is the latest news on the Virus.
Mydoom virus really a spam tool?
Super Bowl Sunday attack might be a ruse.
By Bob Sullivan Technology correspondent
MSNBC
Updated: 8:06 p.m. ET Jan. 30, 2004While computer security experts prepare for a Super Bowl Sunday attack by Mydoom-infected machines, there is increasing speculation that the virus is really a program designed to help spammers.
Experts estimate that between 100,000 and 200,000 computers around the globe are still infected with the worm, which first appeared on Monday. Researchers have called Mydoom the fastest-spreading e-mail worm ever. While the spread of Mydoom has slowed by Friday, it was still generating massive amounts of stray e-mail traffic and infecting more computers worldwide.
This weekend, the worm's second feature will kick in, when it begins a denial of service attack aimed at Utah software company SCO Group Inc. Beginning just a few hours before Super Bowl kickoff, every infected machine will begin pelting SCO.com with requests for information, a denial of service attack which could take the firm's home page offline.
While security experts doubt the deluge will have any impact on the overall health of the Internet, it could cause spotty outages - for example, users who share common cable modem lines with infected computers might experience localized slowdowns, said virus researcher Vincent Gullotto of Network Associates Inc. And that should be a concern to Super Bowl advertisers that have Internet components to their pricey television commercials. Advertisers are paying about $2.3 million for a 30-second spot during Sunday's game.
"With anybody using the Net to market during the Super Bowl, you may at least want to understand what's going to happen on Sunday," Gullotto said. "It never hurts to have a backup plan in place."
Mydoom packs quite a punch
SCO Group spokesman Blake Stowell said "there is really no way to stop this attack from happening," so his company is hunkering down for a storm of traffic on Sunday.
"This is the fourth time in less than 10 months that our company has had to deal with denial of service attack," Stowell said. "We are starting to know how to deal with these things in a much better way. We have a lot of contingency plans in place to make sure our company's Web site stays up."
Meanwhile, there is less concern about a similar attack targeting Microsoft that is also set to begin on Sunday. The variant trained on Microsoft's home page, Mydoom.B, has infected few computers. Both Microsoft and SCO have offered $250,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of the virus writer.
SCO, which has been targeted in other recent attacks, is in the middle of a prolonged fight with Linux users, but there is no evidence directly linking that argument to the attacks.
Stowell, however, said he suspected the Linux community is to blame for the impending attack.
"The previous attacks our on company came from the Linux community, we know that," he said. There is no way to know who is responsible for the worm at this point, Stowell said, but "history would say it is someone wihtin that community that is upset with us."
Might be a smokescreen
But some antivirus researchers think the Super Bowl Sunday denial of service attacks might be a smokescreen, a sideshow designed to distract researchers from the worm's real purpose - aiding spam - said virus researcher Mikko Hypponen of F-Secure Corp, based in Finland.
"The logic in having the attack code on SCO, it could be something to throw the attention to somewhere else," Hypponen said. "So nobody really paid attention that there is this other functionality."
The "other functionality" is a simple back door the Mydoom virus installs on infected computers. It leaves an open port, or doorway, onto the computer in a fairly cryptic location. While it would be hard for casual hackers to stumble on this door, the virus author would know exactly where to find infected machines.
`The logic in having the attack code on SCO, it could be something to throw the attention to somewhere else. So nobody really paid attention that there is this other functionality.'
Whoever finds the machines would have a willing army of computer zombies to do all kinds of dirty work. Since spammers are frequently disconnected from Internet service providers, they are constantly in search of "proxies," -- hacked computers that can be used as fresh Internet addresses from which they can send out spam.
"You can re-route e-mails through the machines. It's exactly what you need if you want to send spam and mask who you are," Hypponen said.
It wouldn't be the first time a massive virus outbreak led to more spam, said virus researcher Vincent Weafer of Symantec Corp. Last year's SoBig virus, which also infected hundreds of thousands of machines, turned out to be a cleverly designed tool to turn home computers into spam proxies. A report released in December by antivirus firm Sophos said one-third of all spam sent at the end of last year was transmitted by such hijacked computers.
"We do know the use of worms as carriers for open proxies has been increasing over the last year," Symantec's Weafer said. "A lot of these machines are for hire."
Months after the SoBig outbreak, antivirus firms were tracking spam sent from IP addresses with computers known to have been infected by that virus. While F-Secure has not yet discovered spam sent by Mydoom-infected computers, Hypponen thinks it will happen.
""It's just a theory at this point, but I wouldn't be surprised if that's the case," he said.
Internet chat rooms are full of computer criminals offering such proxies for sale - one estimate suggests a going rate of $5,000 for about 10,000 hijacked computers, Weafer said. "There is real money being spent for compromised boxes."
FTC tries to raise awareness
The Federal Trade Commission acknowledges that the threat of consumers unknowingly helping spammers is real. Coincidentally this week, the FTC launched an awareness campaign designed to alert consumers to the possibility that their home computers might be used by spammers.
FTC attorney Eric Wegner said he couldn't say what was behind the Mydoom outbreak, but said it was "highly plausible" that spam was the motivation.
"As it becomes harder to send out hundreds of thousands of messages from one place, the more likely it is that people will try more find more ways - to send out spam," Wegner said. "This would be one desperate way to try to inject spam into the system."
He advises consumers to keep antivirus software up to date, to install a firewall to prevent hijackings, and to regularly check the "sent" folder in their e-mail to see if there's any unexpected activity.
"They should look at what's coming out of their machines to see if there's anything strange," Wegner said. "If it looks like their computer might be infected, they should take it offline and run a virus scanner."
Consumers concerned that they are infected with the worm can download "cleaner" software from the various antivirus vendors. The FTC also has a Web site with more information at http://www.ftc.gov/infosecurity/.
Remember...Terrorist are attacking Civilians; Not the Government. Protect Yourself!
http://www.awbansunset.com/
My Update ran out a month ago.
Below is the latest news on the Virus.
Mydoom virus really a spam tool?
Super Bowl Sunday attack might be a ruse.
By Bob Sullivan Technology correspondent
MSNBC
Updated: 8:06 p.m. ET Jan. 30, 2004While computer security experts prepare for a Super Bowl Sunday attack by Mydoom-infected machines, there is increasing speculation that the virus is really a program designed to help spammers.
Experts estimate that between 100,000 and 200,000 computers around the globe are still infected with the worm, which first appeared on Monday. Researchers have called Mydoom the fastest-spreading e-mail worm ever. While the spread of Mydoom has slowed by Friday, it was still generating massive amounts of stray e-mail traffic and infecting more computers worldwide.
This weekend, the worm's second feature will kick in, when it begins a denial of service attack aimed at Utah software company SCO Group Inc. Beginning just a few hours before Super Bowl kickoff, every infected machine will begin pelting SCO.com with requests for information, a denial of service attack which could take the firm's home page offline.
While security experts doubt the deluge will have any impact on the overall health of the Internet, it could cause spotty outages - for example, users who share common cable modem lines with infected computers might experience localized slowdowns, said virus researcher Vincent Gullotto of Network Associates Inc. And that should be a concern to Super Bowl advertisers that have Internet components to their pricey television commercials. Advertisers are paying about $2.3 million for a 30-second spot during Sunday's game.
"With anybody using the Net to market during the Super Bowl, you may at least want to understand what's going to happen on Sunday," Gullotto said. "It never hurts to have a backup plan in place."
Mydoom packs quite a punch
SCO Group spokesman Blake Stowell said "there is really no way to stop this attack from happening," so his company is hunkering down for a storm of traffic on Sunday.
"This is the fourth time in less than 10 months that our company has had to deal with denial of service attack," Stowell said. "We are starting to know how to deal with these things in a much better way. We have a lot of contingency plans in place to make sure our company's Web site stays up."
Meanwhile, there is less concern about a similar attack targeting Microsoft that is also set to begin on Sunday. The variant trained on Microsoft's home page, Mydoom.B, has infected few computers. Both Microsoft and SCO have offered $250,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of the virus writer.
SCO, which has been targeted in other recent attacks, is in the middle of a prolonged fight with Linux users, but there is no evidence directly linking that argument to the attacks.
Stowell, however, said he suspected the Linux community is to blame for the impending attack.
"The previous attacks our on company came from the Linux community, we know that," he said. There is no way to know who is responsible for the worm at this point, Stowell said, but "history would say it is someone wihtin that community that is upset with us."
Might be a smokescreen
But some antivirus researchers think the Super Bowl Sunday denial of service attacks might be a smokescreen, a sideshow designed to distract researchers from the worm's real purpose - aiding spam - said virus researcher Mikko Hypponen of F-Secure Corp, based in Finland.
"The logic in having the attack code on SCO, it could be something to throw the attention to somewhere else," Hypponen said. "So nobody really paid attention that there is this other functionality."
The "other functionality" is a simple back door the Mydoom virus installs on infected computers. It leaves an open port, or doorway, onto the computer in a fairly cryptic location. While it would be hard for casual hackers to stumble on this door, the virus author would know exactly where to find infected machines.
`The logic in having the attack code on SCO, it could be something to throw the attention to somewhere else. So nobody really paid attention that there is this other functionality.'
Whoever finds the machines would have a willing army of computer zombies to do all kinds of dirty work. Since spammers are frequently disconnected from Internet service providers, they are constantly in search of "proxies," -- hacked computers that can be used as fresh Internet addresses from which they can send out spam.
"You can re-route e-mails through the machines. It's exactly what you need if you want to send spam and mask who you are," Hypponen said.
It wouldn't be the first time a massive virus outbreak led to more spam, said virus researcher Vincent Weafer of Symantec Corp. Last year's SoBig virus, which also infected hundreds of thousands of machines, turned out to be a cleverly designed tool to turn home computers into spam proxies. A report released in December by antivirus firm Sophos said one-third of all spam sent at the end of last year was transmitted by such hijacked computers.
"We do know the use of worms as carriers for open proxies has been increasing over the last year," Symantec's Weafer said. "A lot of these machines are for hire."
Months after the SoBig outbreak, antivirus firms were tracking spam sent from IP addresses with computers known to have been infected by that virus. While F-Secure has not yet discovered spam sent by Mydoom-infected computers, Hypponen thinks it will happen.
""It's just a theory at this point, but I wouldn't be surprised if that's the case," he said.
Internet chat rooms are full of computer criminals offering such proxies for sale - one estimate suggests a going rate of $5,000 for about 10,000 hijacked computers, Weafer said. "There is real money being spent for compromised boxes."
FTC tries to raise awareness
The Federal Trade Commission acknowledges that the threat of consumers unknowingly helping spammers is real. Coincidentally this week, the FTC launched an awareness campaign designed to alert consumers to the possibility that their home computers might be used by spammers.
FTC attorney Eric Wegner said he couldn't say what was behind the Mydoom outbreak, but said it was "highly plausible" that spam was the motivation.
"As it becomes harder to send out hundreds of thousands of messages from one place, the more likely it is that people will try more find more ways - to send out spam," Wegner said. "This would be one desperate way to try to inject spam into the system."
He advises consumers to keep antivirus software up to date, to install a firewall to prevent hijackings, and to regularly check the "sent" folder in their e-mail to see if there's any unexpected activity.
"They should look at what's coming out of their machines to see if there's anything strange," Wegner said. "If it looks like their computer might be infected, they should take it offline and run a virus scanner."
Consumers concerned that they are infected with the worm can download "cleaner" software from the various antivirus vendors. The FTC also has a Web site with more information at http://www.ftc.gov/infosecurity/.
Remember...Terrorist are attacking Civilians; Not the Government. Protect Yourself!http://www.awbansunset.com/
Keep your Powder dry and your Musket well oiled.
NRA Lifetime Benefactor Member.
Comments
If force ain't work'n... Your not use'n nough of it.
I know the spelling is bad but guess what I DON'T CARE
If force ain't work'n... Your not use'n nough of it.
I know the spelling is bad but guess what I DON'T CARE