Netsky B is very pesky
A new, more dangerous version of the Netsky worm is making the rounds on the Internet.
The bug, which goes by the name Netsky-b or Moodown-b, is a modified version of NetSky-a that surfaced earlier this week. Initial ratings from the likes of Symantec, Network Associates and F-Secure suggest that the malware is a medium- to high-grade threat; and early reports say that the worm is spreading quickly.
Though not nearly as virulent or destructive as the recent MyDoom bug, Netsky-b has infected hundreds of systems, including computers within some major corporations such as Lucent, according to reports.
Netsky-b is a self-propagating -mail worm, which is delivered in executable attachments in incoming e-mails. Once the infected attachment is opened, the bug copies itself to the computer and re-sends itself to all email addresses found on the hard drive of the contaminated PC.
Some interesting and nefarious aspects of the worm include innocuous-looking file extensions on some infected files, such as .doc, .txt or .rtf. These phoney extensions, which may be designed to fool users and anti-virus software, appear before actual file type extensions such as .pif, .scr, .exe or sometimes .zip.
