Four new Bagle worms added to Internet soup

TalkBack 18 of 25:

Next »

« Previous

• Thread View
• Flat View

The Stew begins to boil

It didn't take long for my prediction to become real. Now a new
virus named "Witty" has made it's appearance that destroys the
functionality of it's hosts and renders them useless.

The Washington Post released this story yesterday: "Witty
Worm Wrecks Computers"

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?
tmpl=story&cid=1804&e=3&u=/washpost/20040321/
tc_washpost/a11310_2004mar20

Quotes from the article:

"A quickly spreading Internet worm destroyed or damaged tens
of thousands of personal computers worldwide Saturday
morning by exploiting a security flaw in a firewall program
designed to protect PCs from online threats, computer experts
said."

"The "Witty" worm writes random data onto the hard drives of
computers equipped with the Black Ice and Real Secure Internet
firewall products, causing the drives to fail and making it
impossible to restart the PCs. Unlike many recent worms that
arrive as e-mail attachments, it spreads automatically to
vulnerable computers without any action on the part of the user.

At least 50,000 computers have been infected so far, according
to Reston, Va.-based computer security firm iDefense and the
Bethesda, Md.-based SANS Institute."

"Most infected computers will have to be rebuilt from scratch
unless their owners instead decide to buy new ones, said Ken
Dunham, a computer security expert at iDefense."

"The thing looks like it will corrupt or crash most drives enough
so that reinstallation is going to be required," he said. "This is a
very destructive worm."

Does anyone think that this situation is going to get better over
time? Would you load Windows back on to your computer after
something like this takes you down?

Posted by: Aphelion   Posted on: 03/21/04 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use

Alert moderator to an offensive message

Subscribe to this discussion via Email or RSS

SponsoredWhite Papers, Webcasts, and Downloads

• VMware Infrastructure: A Guide to Bottom-Line Benefits VMware Frustrated by the costs of maintain ever larger data centers?or building ... Download Now
• The True Costs of Virtual Server Solutions VMware In an economic environment that is repeatedly heralding the message "do ... Download Now
• The Impact of Virtualization Software on Operating Environments VMware Today's use of virtualization technology allows IT professionals to ... Download Now