Fizzer Virus Pops Up On Kazaa

C/Net ^ | May 12, 2003 | Will Sturgeon

[Hal1950]

A new virus called Fizzer apparently has been spreading rapidly in Asia and has now reached beyond that continent.

Fizzer is a self-propagating worm that spreads via e-mail and the peer-to-peer file-sharing service Kazaa.

On Friday, security company F-Secure gave Fizzer its second-highest alert status. On Monday, F-Secure issued a press release that upgraded Fizzer to its highest alert status, although it had not yet updated its Web site. Other security companies, such as Trend Micro and McAfee, have classified it as a "medium" risk.

The virus arrives in an e-mail with of a number of potential subject lines, including "So how are you?" "There is only one good, knowledge, and one evil, ignorance." "You must not show this to anyone." "Today is a good day to die." "Filth is a death." "Watchin' the game, having a bud." "Did you ever stop to think that viruses are good for the economy?"

Fizzer spreads in e-mail as an attachment with .exe, .pif, .scr and .com extensions.

When activated the worm sends itself to e-mail addresses stored in the infected PC's Windows and Outlook address books and drops into the Windows folder several files called initbak.dat, iservc.dll, iservc.exe and ProgOp.exe.

[Timesink]

*looks at Mac sitting in front of him, stops caring*

[discostu]

First SARS now Fizzer, we need to seriously cleanup Asia they're infecting the world.

[nutmeg]

ping!

[Billy_bob_bob]

I'm in an all Mac office myself, and I'm loving it. No virus worries here, no registration hassles, no routine crashes, no problems at all. Life is good.

[John Robinson]

The first and only virus I ever had was a Macintosh virus. (nVIR, circa 1989.)

[m1-lightning]

In other news... Madonna has now struck back by flooding file-trading networks with dummy music files that appear to be full-length songs. When played, however, the files contain not music, but a recording of Madonna's voice saying, "What the f*** do you think you are doing?" Madonna Attacks File Traders

[Billy_bob_bob]

Interesting. When I still ran Windows machines I had to worry about viruses, even got bit a couple of times. I've been running Macs for about three years now and have not had one. Knock wood.

[discostu]

While I have no love lost for Madona I think that's hilarious and appropriate. But we're hip deep discussing that (copyright infringement) in a different thread.

[EggsAckley]

I recently was the lucky recipient of the old "klez" worm. It came to me through a friend who had just downloaded Kazaa. Took us three whole days to get rid of it. The keywords in that virus are "I hope you would enjoy it" or variations of that.

[jnarcus]

Yup I am also a happy Macster everytime one of these silly hackers let's loose with another virus...AND I don't have to do dip switches or IRQs

[Hank Rearden]

*looks at Mac sitting in front of him, stops caring*

So, is your Barbie's First Computer tangerine or pink?

[discostu]

Oh please, dipswitches and IRQs are sooooo ISA. Since the switch over to PCI and improvement to plug and play that hassle is looong gone from PC country. People really should keep their complaints current.

[Paul C. Jesup]

Well the hacker's reply to her website was funnier.

[discostu]

Typical. Responding by breaking the law. There's nothing illegal in her distributing a fake of her own stuff, hacking is illegal.

[Paul C. Jesup]

Technically is was spamming, not to mention a profane (cussing) form of spam. If not illegal (which is some states it is, and if I looked it up, it might be against a federal law or two) it was in poor taste.

And it was very stupid of her because she cussed out her most diehard core fanbase, who could not wait to buy her album.

[discostu]

So long as they didn't hack her website we'll just call it infighting. If they actually hacked it that's vandalism, if she earns money from it and they impeded that it's a potential RICO violation (man has that law gotten legs beyond it's original intent). Something to note for our more exuberant FReepers out there, certain lines are very bad to cross.

She was telling her fans that she doesn't appreciate her stuff being distributed in violation of the copyright which she holds. I doubt any of her diehard fans were suprised to find out she's got a foul mouth.

[July 4th]

All Windows users have to do is stay the hell away from Outlook. It is the entry point and propagator for a huge percentage of PC viruses. Unfortunately, many businesses force the program on their employees. I'm a Windows/Linux user, and have never had a damaging virus. Good software combined with effective anti-virus does the trick.

Granted, if huge numbers of users switch from Outlook, viruses will be written for the new programs, but at this point it's not a concern.

[1Old Pro]

Use Kazaa LITE, not Kazaa.

[Paul C. Jesup]

How can she earn money by cussing out people?