Latest worm ( MyDoom ) has professional twist (Computer experts blame spammers)

AJC.com ^ | 1/28/04 | Bill Husted

[honeygrl]

So it seems that professional spammers, not the "Linux Community" is responsible.

[honeygrl]

Ready to apologize for blaming it on the wrong people yet?

[theDentist]

So if you build a better worm-trap, the 'net wil beat a path to your door.

[leadpencil1]

The message cannot be represented in 7-bit ASCII encoding and has been sent as a binary attachment.

[SGCOS]

[Theo]

Can't we just follow the money? And those profiteers who have their spam sent from infected computers would pretty clearly be the guilty ones, no? Couldn't someone just buy something from one of these spammers and see how their credit card is billed?

It shouldn't be all that difficult to track down those who profit from this worm....

FWIW, I own a couple of domain names, and have received over 600 spam/worms since yesterday. 600.

[thoughtomator]

That's why we need to bring back the draw-and-quarter method of punishment, specifically for email spammers. I firmly believe that a civilized society needs to make an example out of people who would inflict an unmitigated evil upon others for their own personal benefits.

[meanie monster]

Would the worm cause your email to download slow? I checked my mail earlier and it took forever to download. They were only text messages too, and only 4 total.

[honeygrl]

I own 1 domain name. As of yesterday I had recieved the worm maybe 8-10 times. I haven't checked my mail yet today though. I'm kinda afraid to.. LOL I know I'm just going to have to hit delete way too many times.

[pcx99]

How to shut down spammers in one easy step.

1] Fine the companies IN the ads, not the spammers.

It's as simple as that.

[JoJo Gunn]

I always thought along the lines of chopping off a few fingers. Leave one or two for scratching and nose picking.

Nah, never mind. Chop 'em all. Leave them a hook.

[Doctor Stochastic]

Throwing a spammer in the works?

[mikegi]

So it seems that professional spammers, not the "Linux Community" is responsible.

In all the descriptions of this virus I've found there's no mention of "organized crime" involvement.

[antiRepublicrat]

Ready to apologize for blaming it on the wrong people yet?

I think a lot of people and businesses owe a BIG apology, but I don't expect to see many forthcoming.

[js1138]

Mehta said while he had seen reports the worm contained a keystroke logger, he could not confirm them. He said computers equipped with a firewall program should be safe because the anti-hacker software would intercept and stop the remote prying.

Gee, I can recall being flamed for saying this two days ago.

[Right Wing Professor]

I've gotten about 20 of these silly emails already. I don't care - the worm doesn't run on my Mac., but it's annoying.

I blame the entire Microsoft OS-using community, except the ones who say they're very, very, very sorry for using a crappy operating system that's full of security holes.

/Golden Eagle mode

[honeygrl]

"Would the worm cause your email to download slow? I checked my mail earlier and it took forever to download. They were only text messages too, and only 4 total."

I have no idea. Have you opened any attachments lately? The only way to get it is to open an attachment containing the worm in an email. If you have opened suspicious attachments, you may want to update your virus program and run it to be sure you don't have it or to get rid of it. Norton Antivirus offers a 15 days trial version on their website I think.

[Dog Gone]

For some reason, I have yet to receive this worm in an email. I don't think Norton blocks them, just alerts to the presence of the worm.

I feel kinda left out.

[Leroy S. Mort]

Experts say the creation of MyDoom was almost certainly funded by e-mail spammers.

What size "fund" does one need to get a worm created? Probably a six-pack.

[Theo]

I'm also a Mac-user, and feel no threat from these things. Even though I'm a Mac-user, of course, I just don't open attachments or follow links unless I know what it is and have requested it.

But over 600 of these worm/spams so far! Dang. In the past 30 minutes, I've receive 1 per minute. And I've got a pretty boring domain name....