New virus strain emerges Mydoom spawn readies attack on Microsoft

San Francisco Chronicle ^ | 1/29/2004 | David R. Baker

[Born Conservative]

A new strain of the Mydoom computer virus emerged Wednesday and set its sights on Microsoft, the latest target of the biggest and fastest spreading bug in Internet history.

Computers infected with Mydoom.B are programmed to launch an attack on Microsoft's Web site next week. Like the original Mydoom, which first appeared Monday, the new strain also targets the SCO Group, a Utah firm involved in lawsuits over the Linux computer operating system.

Getting rid of it won't be easy. Mydoom.B blocks infected computers from logging onto the Web sites of Internet security firms, Web sites that might contain an antidote to the virulent program.

"It's very intelligent, very crafty," said...

[Born Conservative]

I've received 6 Mydoom-infected emails in the past 2 days (I'm careful about giving out my home email address, so this is unusual for me to get so many infected emails). Fortunately, my Norton AV intercepted them without a problem. If you haven't updated your virus definitions, be sure to do so right away. I noticed that Norton has put out about 4 updates in the past week alone.

[anniegetyourgun]

I have seen (in other publications) that the source of this appears to be MS-hating-Linus-types. I don't know if there is evidence of that in the underlyings or not. However, I must say - it wouldn't surprise me.

[sharktrager]

Maybe Bill Gates shouldn't have dloated about the original version going after Linux boxes.

[Astronaut]

I'm not a supporter of destructive virus writers, but maybe if Microsoft didn't produce such a crappy, insecure OS, they wouldn't have such an easy target. Gates did sort of ask for it with his truly idiotic recent remarks about how Windows is really more secure than Macintosh or Linux. Oh really? We keep seeing how "secure" Windows is every time a virus panics the Window-using world, but is not even noticed by those of us running OS X.

And by the way, some Windows fanboy is bound to point out that Apple isn't a target because Windows is used by 95% of the world, yada yada yada. Apple isn't a target because their OS is secure out of the box!

[Pylot]

Well with SCO offering $250K to anyone delivering the creators of this virus I think your suspicion is correct!

I mentioned in another post that we are witnessing a form of virtual anarchy.

[antiRepublicrat]

I have seen (in other publications) that the source of this appears to be MS-hating-Linus-types. I don't know if there is evidence of that in the underlyings or not.

It appears it's not related to Linux at all, with SCO just being a target to throw people off. It originated in Russia (where the SCO case doesn't matter) and does a lot of stuff that has nothing to do with Microsoft or SCO hating.

[martin_fierro]

FREE PC PROTECTION: (Not an exhaustive list. Your results may vary. Void where prohibited. For entertainment purposes only. No wagering, please. Whattayawantfernuthin'.)

Alternative browsers: Mozilla Opera AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition: Free anti-viral protection Popup ad killers: Bayden Systems Popup Popper: Blocks popup ads well in MSIE Shoot the Messenger: Close that friggin' Messenger in Windows XP Spyware removers: Spybot S&D AdAware MailWasher: Good for pre-screening & bouncing SPAM Windows Update: At least install the critical ones ZoneAlarm: Excellent Firewall Test your firewall from without with ShieldsUP! Test your firewall from within with LeakTest

[anniegetyourgun]

Sure looks that way. There sure is lots of hatred of enterprise going around these days. Just wish those who hate corporate America would live without it - somewhere else.

[MudPuppy]

bump and mark