Viruses & Malware

Here's a worm that turned ...

...into a cool $500,000.

That's what MyDoom is worth now Microsoft has offered another $250,000 to add to the $250,000 bounty already put up by SCO for the head of whoever authored the e-microbe, which targets SCO and Microsoft in its A and B variations.

Now the fastest spreading email e-worm in history, it has the commercial sector scrambling to protect itself before tomorrow when it's programmed to 'officially' launch its worldwide denial-of-service attack from every infected computer.

Security experts warned on Thursday the fast-spreading MyDoom virus would plague e-mail users for some time as it counts down to a mammoth digital attack next week on Microsoft and software firm SCO Group Inc.

For a fourth consecutive day, Internet service providers and corporations were bogged down by a crush of infected e-mails.

Security experts said as many as one in three e-mails in circulation was triggered by MyDoom.A, making it the fastest spreading Internet contagion ever.

It's only two days old and still growing, but at least one security firm is ready to crown the MyDoom virus as the worst ever.

Finnish security software and services company F-Secure made the coronation late Wednesday, declaring the MyDoom the fastest-spreading worm ever and "the worst e-mail worm incident in virus history" in a letter research director Mikko Hypponen wrote.

Kaspersky Labs has already received several reports of infections by this malicious program. Our analysts believe that Mydoom.b is probably using machines infected by the original Mydoom to propagate. Therefore, the computer community may be facing a much more serious outbreak than the one caused by Mydoom.a yesterday, January 27.

The MyDoom virus has become the fastest-spreading virus yet, hitting hardest in the United States and Australia, security firm MessageLabs said Wednesday.

The British firm, which provides security to companies around the globe, had intercepted more than 1.8 million copies of the new mass-mailer worm in 168 countries, a spokesman said.

More than 100,000 copies are being intercepted every hour, he added. One in 12 e-mails handled by MessageLabs was infected with the worm.

An e-mail worm that looks like a normal error message but actually contains a malicious program snarled computers around the world on Tuesday.

MessageLabs Inc., which scans e-mail for viruses, said one in every 12 messages contained the worm, called "Mydoom" or "Novarg." Security experts described it as the largest virus-like outbreak in months.

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).

A new trojan that's an offshoot of a recently discovered Internet worm is attempting to empty PC users' bank accounts by duping them into disclosing personal information, an anti-virus company said Friday.

Mmdload-A was distributed apparently through a mass mailing in an attempt to trick people into downloading the recently discovered Mimail-N worm, Sophos said.

The swift spread of an e-mail worm that surfaced over the weekend appears to have reached its peak and may be subsiding, computer security experts said Tuesday.

Dubbed "Bagle" or "Beagle," the subject line of the worm simply reads "Hi" with "test : )" in the body of the message. Once a person clicks on the attachment, the worm sends itself to the recipient's e-mail address book. The worm also randomly selects a name from the address book to use as a return address in the messages it sends.

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.