Viruses & Malware

The latest variant of the MyDoom worm, which was discovered on Monday, peaked after around 12 hours and has already started dying out, according to antivirus firms.

Security experts have been warning about the consequences of another MyDoom outbreak after the original version caused massive disruption to the Internet and launched a DDoS attack on SCO that knocked the company's Web site offline for more than a month.

However, the latest variant of MyDoom does not appear to launched a DDoS attack.

The No. 1 Internet search engine on Monday was unable to provide search results to a number of Web surfers, probably because of a variant of the MyDoom virus.

Users of other popular search engines such as Yahoo and Lycos may also have experienced some sluggish behavior.

Google released a statement to CNN at 3 p.m. ET saying the site "experienced slowness for a short period of time early today because of the MyDoom virus, which flooded major search engines with automated searches.

A virus purporting to show images of Osama bin Laden's suicide popped up on the Internet Friday, designed to entice recipients to open a file that unleashes malicious software code, security experts said.

The virus was attached to a message that was posted on over 30,000 usenet newsgroups and is not being spread via e-mail, said Web security vendor Sophos.

The U.S. government has been hunting for bin Laden since 2001, holding him responsible for masterminding the attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon on September 11, 2001, but he has not yet been found.

The first virus to attack handheld computers running Microsoft's Windows Pocket PC software has been found.
It is called "Duts", and its existence has been revealed by the Romanian security firm BitDefender.

The company said the virus posed no threat and was produced only as a "proof of concept" by its creators.

The program comes from the same virus writing group that put together similar code that could spread between smartphones running Symbian software.

Unknown online vandals with an apparent connection to spam email have created a new version of the Bagle computer worm that has spread somewhat successfully in the past 24 hours, according to antivirus companies. The mass-mailing computer virus, dubbed Bagle.AF or Beagle.AB by different security firms, opens a path for intruders to relay bulk email messages through the infected computer and attempts to contact one of almost 150 compromised German websites to let the attackers known of their latest conquest.

The 'smart' worm that sleeps when scanned has sprouted a variant that appears to be written by someone claiming links to Al-Qaeda, according to antivirus firm BitDefender.
A second variant of the Atak worm, which goes to sleep to avoid detection by antivirus software, has been linked to an Al-Qaeda sympathiser who once threatened to release a powerful worm if the US attacked Iraq.

Romanian antivirus firm Bitdefender claims the worm's author has signed his nickname into an encrypted part of the worm's code.

Virus writers have released a new version of the Bagle worm, on the back of the source code released into the wild earlier this month.

Bagle-AF (AKA Bagle-AB or the 'Apprentice' worm) is spreading quickly across the Net, following its release yesterday. Most anti-virus firms rate it as medium risk.

The latest mass-mailing worm, Atak, hides by going to sleep when it suspects that antivirus software is trying to detect it.
Atak was first discovered Monday. Although antivirus companies do not expect it to cause much damage, they say it will be a nuisance because it can generate a large amount of spam.

The latest mass-mailing worm is more annoying than dangerous, but Atak is interesting because it hides from antivirus researchers by going to sleep when it is being analysed

Atak was first discovered on Monday and although antivirus companies do not expect it to cause much damage, they say it will be a nuisance because it can generate a large amount of spam.

Controversial Irish Web site Tradesports.com will soon accept wagers on IT security disasters, such as the timing of the next big Windows virus or the most likely victim of a future DDoS attack.

Futures market broker Tradesports.com has been criticised in the past for allowing its customers to gamble on controversial "contracts" or events, such as the capture of Osama Bin Laden or the formation of a Palestinian state. The company's latest idea is to allow punters to trade on the likelihood of IT security disasters.