Worm Set to Delete Data Files on February 3
Linked by Thom Holwerda on Mon 23rd Jan 2006 19:14 UTC
Bugs & Viruses While the most high-profile security vulnerability of late was almost certainly the WMF hole recently patched by Microsoft, in terms of actual numbers of infections it was barely a blip on the radar. According to the anti-virus company F-Secure, one of the most populous and dangerous infections today is not some sophisticated bit of code exploiting a new and exotic security hole, but an old-school e-mail worm written in Visual Basic that spreads by tempting users with free pornography.
E-mail Print r 0   10 Comment(s) http://osne.ws/ac9
Order by: Score:
Add Comment Post a Comment
Poll for tech support folks
by StephenBeDoper on Mon 23rd Jan 2006 21:39 UTC
StephenBeDoper
Member since:
2005-07-06

You will spend February 3rd:
[ ] Answering frantic phone calls
[ ] Huddled in the corner with phone unplugged

Reply Score: 1

RE: Poll for tech support folks
by Beryllium on Tue 24th Jan 2006 02:24 UTC in reply to "Poll for tech support folks"
Beryllium Member since:
2005-07-08

Visual basic runs on linux now? news to me.

We only have ten windows users in the entire company, and if they get a virus - well, it's their own fool fault. They're not allowed net access on their windows machines anyway ;)

Reply Score: 0

RE: Poll for tech support folks
by remiss on Tue 24th Jan 2006 07:17 UTC in reply to "Poll for tech support folks"
remiss Member since:
2006-01-24

You will spend February 3rd:
[ ] Answering frantic phone calls
[X] Huddled in the corner with phone unplugged

Reply Score: 2

Is this a Worm?
by MikeGA on Mon 23rd Jan 2006 22:22 UTC
MikeGA
Member since:
2005-07-22

The article keeps going on about it being a worm, but since you actually have to open it yourself, surely it's a Trojan? i.e It's less serious since there's only so far you can go to protect the user against their own stupidity (and their desire for porn!)

Reply Score: 3

RE: Is this a Worm?
by Ronald Vos on Tue 24th Jan 2006 00:03 UTC in reply to "Is this a Worm?"
Ronald Vos Member since:
2005-07-06

It's not a trojan but a worm, since it's self-propagating.

A virus is self-replicating code injecting itself into files, a worm is self-replicating code travelling through other means, and a trojan is simply malicious 'sterile' code.

Reply Score: 1

RE[2]: Is this a Worm?
by DigitalAxis on Tue 24th Jan 2006 02:12 UTC in reply to "RE: Is this a Worm?"
DigitalAxis Member since:
2005-08-28

I'd say it's a trojan, since it's not going to infect your computer unless you actually run the stupid thing. It propagates itself, but it looks like it'll only do that if you run it.

The thought that this could be the biggest trojan of the year is really, really sad. Nothing clever, just... sex. It's like... why do we bother patching security holes when people still fall for THAT?

Reply Score: 2

Mind-boggling
by Tom K on Tue 24th Jan 2006 00:31 UTC
Tom K
Member since:
2005-07-06

With all of the free pornography EVERYWHERE YOU LOOK on the Internet, why do people still open obvious pornspam e-mails?

Human stupidity will never cease to amaze me.

Reply Score: 1

RE: Mind-boggling
by SlackerJack on Tue 24th Jan 2006 11:50 UTC in reply to "Mind-boggling"
SlackerJack Member since:
2005-11-12

"Windows users stupidity will never cease to amaze me."

Thats what you meant to say and software is really is easy to install on windows, one click worm install. :-)

Reply Score: 1

v RE[2]: Mind-boggling
by Tom K on Tue 24th Jan 2006 17:26 UTC in reply to "RE: Mind-boggling"
muah.
by zero08 on Tue 24th Jan 2006 14:41 UTC
zero08
Member since:
2006-01-01

This is so funny. Guess what, Windows will be on the news again the next two weeks for ruining f*ckloads of user data... nice marketing gag for vista's new anti malware features, heh... but even if those who click anything that's slower than the cursor well deserve a lesson, I am against data destruction of any kind. Darn, ne1 can hear the faint n00bish moaning behind the horizon...

Reply Score: 1

Add Comment Post a Comment