Zotob damage deep but not widespread
Fewer businesses fell victim to the Zotob worm that struck corporate networks than previous attacks, but those it hit paid dearly, according to a new survey.
The August worm caused disruptions for about 13 percent of the organisations surveyed by computer security firm Cybertrust, which released the results of a 700-company study on Wednesday. As reported earlier, Zotob's victims included cable news station CNN, TV network ABC, The New York Times and DaimlerChrysler.
Six percent of survey respondents said Zotob's impact on their company was moderate to major, which was defined as more than US$10,000 in losses and at least one major business system affected, such as e-mail or Internet connectivity.
Alarming as it was, Zotob did far less damage than did other major worms designed to exploit Windows vulnerabilities, Cybertrust said. For example, the Nimda worm made a moderate to major impact on 60 percent of companies. MSBlast (aka Blaster) struck about 30 percent of organisations to that degree, the firm said.
