New worm virus threatens Internet
Computer security experts fear a new worm that began spreading rapidly across Australian e-mail networks on Sunday could be a rehearsal for a more concerted attack in coming weeks, Cnet reported on Tuesday.
The worm, dubbed Bagle-A, carries an expiration date, possibly indicating that more robust versions of the worm could be slated for release soon, said Daniel Zatz, security expert for US software company Computer Associates (CA).
Comparing Bagle to the infamous Sobig virus that flooded global e-mail networks last year, Zatz said he fears that a more virulentversion of the new worm could appear soon.
"One of our biggest concern is that if we look back a year ago at the Sobig variants, they all had drop-dead dates, and every time one hit that drop-dead date a new variant came out--a new and improved variant of it," Zatz said.
Bagle-A is due to expire Jan. 28, suggesting that tuned variations of the worm could appear as early next week.
Bagle-A's creators, like authors of many previous successful worms, have relied on the ignorance and curiosity of e-mail users for the worm's success.
