Malware: Archive: March 2004

Gates: We're Investing Heavily in Security

The Microsoft chairman issues a software security progress report, highlighting 'significant investments' in four key areas.

Netsky R Variant Spreads Via Email

Some security vendors Wednesday reported the appearance of the new R variant of Netsky (W32/Netsky.R.worm).

March Virus Madness Strains IT Managers

March was a stressful month for IT and security managers as they struggled to keep up with the roaring torrent of new viruses hitting as often as three or four times a day.

AOL Plans To Award 'Spoils' of Spam War

The ISP is planning to give a 'valuable asset' to a lucky spam victim; call the award the spoils of its spam war.

Trojan/Worm Opens TCP Ports to Process Commands

W32/Agobot-FJ is an IRC backdoor Trojan and peer-to-peer (P2P) worm that opens TCP ports to listen for and process commands received from a remote intruder, according to Sophos, which issued an alert Tuesday.

IM Spam Expected to Triple

As if spam wasn't annoying enough, unwanted messages are popping up on instant messaging screens too.

Netsky.Q Variant a Medium-Level Threat Alert

Several vendors Monday upgraded the threat level of the newest variant of the Netsky worm, Netsky.Q, from low to medium.

Newest Bagle Variant Opens Game of Hearts

Several security vendors Friday issued high to medium-level threat alerts for Bagle.U, a worm that spreads via e-mail in a message with no subject and no body, and an attached file with a variable file name, but which always has an EXE extension.

Gates Weighs In On Spyware Issue

Microsoft's chairman says 'parasitic' software is turning the Internet into a billboard.

Malware Week in Review

The report for the last week of the month will focus on five worms -Mywife.A, Snapper.A, Cone.E, Netsky.P and Witty.A-, and a hacking tool called Starr.A.

Worm Activates in Outlook Email Preview Pane

Some security vendors have issued alerts for Snapper.A, a worm that spreads via e-mail and is automatically activated when the e-mail message is viewed through Outlook's Preview Pane.

W32/Netsky.P Spreading on Trigger Date of March 24th

Email security provider MessageLabs is warning computer users against W32/Netsky.P, the latest in a long line of Netsky variants, which began mass mailing Wednesday.

Netsky, Mydoom and Bagle Worms Continue to Plague

The Netsky worm, along with Mydoom and Bagle, has been one of leading players in a bizarre cyber-war that has caused a wave of viruses and their variants to plague the Internet for more than a month now, according to a release Tuesday by Panda Software.

Hotmail, Yahoo Users at Risk of PC Takeover

Malicious hackers could inject harmful code just by e-mailing an unsuspecting Hotmail or Yahoo user.

AntiOnline Spotlight: Wireless Security

Roaming workers don't want to hunt for jacks and all of upper management wants to sip espressos at the coffee shop while catching up on e-mails. Make sure you're ready when Wi-Fi makes a play for your corporate network.

Netsky-P Becomes Top Threat

Several security vendors issued high-level alert for W32/Netsky-P, a mass-mailing worm that spreads by emailing itself to addresses harvested from files on the local drives.

Newest Bagle Variant Similar to Predecessor

The latest variant of the Bagle email worm, W32/Bagle.t@MM is very similar to W32/Bagle.q@MM, according to Network Associates, which issued an alert Friday.

It is Time for Some 'Friendly' Worms

Is it time for the industry to be bold about fighting back?

CAN-SPAM: It's Your Move

Can you improve CAN-SPAM? The FTC wants to hear from you -- by April 12.

Malware Week in Review

Once again the weekly report on viruses and intruders centers on new variants of malicious code, in this case five variants of Bagle and two of Netsky.

ISP Gets Tough With 'Zombie' Customers

Comcast pushes its broadband customers with virus-infested spam zombies to clean up their act -- or else.

Four New Variants of Bagle Email Worm Discovered

Several security vendors issued alerts for four new variants of the Bagle email worm Thursday: Bagle.Q, Bagle.R, Bagle.S and Bagle.T.

More Unwanted Messages Since CAN-SPAM

While Pew Internet & American Life Project found that e-mail users have seen an increase in spam, the survey reports a decrease in pornographic messages.

Trojan Allows Unauthorized Computer Access

Troj/Prorat-D is a backdoor Trojan that may allow unauthorized access and control of the computer from a remote network location.

Report: Threats Coming from all Sides

A Symantec study shows that the number of software security flaws has leveled off over the past year. That sounds like good news until you find out that it's leveled off at seven new vulnerabilities a day, or 2,636 a year.

Worm Spreads Via Network Shares

W32/Protoride-F is a Windows worm that spreads via network shares, according to Sophos, which issued an alert Tuesday.

Microsoft Shares Own Security Secrets

The software giant releases a technical case study with details of security methodologies it uses to ward off malicious hacker attacks.

Worm Snares IT in Dangerous Cat and Mouse Game

The author of the virulent Bagle worm is leading anti-virus analysts on a chase that is pummeling corporate IT managers and users with one attack after another. And the author is still tricking users into downloading the malicious code.

Macromedia Patches MX 2004 Security Flaws

Privilege escalation flaws fixed in Macromedia MX 2004 products running on the Mac OS X platform.

Three New Bagle Variants in the Wild

Security vendors Monday issued alerts for three new variants of the Bagle worm: N,O and P.

Trojans Send Confidential Information to Hacker

Sophos Friday issued alerts for two Trojans, Troj/LDPinch-G and Troj/LDPinch-H, which send passwords and confidential information to a remote location and provides backdoor access to the computer.

Virus Week in Review

This week's report examines the six variants of Netsky, two of Nachi and Bagle, the D variant of Sober, the Cidra.B Trojan and the hacking tool, StarKeylog.A.

Peer-to-Peer Worm Copies Itself to Windows Folder

W32/Bereb-B is a peer-to-peer worm that copies itself to the shared folder startrwin in the Windows folder using a variety of names, according to Sophos, which issued an alert Thursday.

Are Lawsuits Missing the Real Spam Kingpins?

Four of the world's largest ISPs may be pulling out the legal stops to go after several hundred spammers, but industry analysts worry that the true kingpins are still hidden behind a digital fortress.

Washington Beefs Up Can Spam

FTC and FCC issue proposed rules to further clarify the broad stroke language of Congress.

Will March 11 be Netsky Worm's Big Day?

March 11 will be Netsky's day. At least this is what the creators of this virus have declared in a text hidden in the code of the K variant of Netsky, according to Panda Software.

Several Bagle Worm Variants in the Wild

Security vendors have issued low-level alerts for three new variants of the Bagle e-mail worm: K,L and M.

Major ISPs to Stand Firm on Anti-Spam Fight

AOL, EarthLink, Microsoft, and Yahoo! are expected to outline their progress against unwanted e-mail.

New Worm Disguises Itself as Microsoft Patch

Security analysts are warning users to be wary of a new worm that disguises itself as a Microsoft security patch. The new threat hits just as damage from Bagle, Netsky and MyDoom collectively cross the $100 billion mark.

Microsoft Patches Trio of Vulnerabilities

Security fixes issued for Microsoft Outlook, MSN Messenger and the Windows Media Services.

New Sober Variant Claims to be Microsoft Patch

Several security vendors Monday issued alerts for W32/Sober.d@MM, a mass-mailing worm written in Visual Basic that claims to contain a patch by Microsoft (in English and German).

Malware: Is Your Workstation at Risk?

Learn why (as a programmer) your workstation is a very 'tasty' target for a malicious user.

Week in Review: Huge Week for Viruses

This past week has been a particularly prolific week for viruses and intrusions.

Netsky Variant H Similar to Others

Several security vendors have issued low-level alerts for the latest variant of the Netsky family: W32.Netsky.H@mm, a mass-mailing worm that uses its own SMTP engine to send itself to the email addresses it finds when scanning hard drives and mapped drives, according to Symantec.

Malware: Archive: March 2004

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