IT Business Canada and Information Week both published a story about a new trojan called ‘Storm’. “This is the biggest since Sober in mid-to-late 2005,” said Sam Masiello, the director of threat research at MX Logic, referring to a long-lasting worm whose variants struck repeatedly in the second half of 2005…”1.
This botnet has a defensive mechanism which “is set up to launch a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack against any computer that is scanning a network for vulnerabilities or malware”2. This means that Storm will attack any servers trying to scan a network for bots and malware. Information Week also reports that this is potentially a bigger problem for schools because of the way most of their networks are set up.
Security researchers have also “discovered that the Storm worm authors have taken their full attention off of e-mail-based attacks and have started creating malicious Web pages. E-mail-based attacks — phony e-cards and fake news alerts — have worked exceedingly well, helping the attackers build up a massive botnet”2.
So, in short, don’t open eMail from people you don’t know, that are MAILER-DAEMON, or for some fantastic deal, most SPAM is annoying and some of it can infect you with a nasty bit of malware. Use Anti-Virus and be smart.
iron wil
Notes:
(1) IT Business, Canada Technology News, New Trojan deadliest in history.
(2) Information Week, Storm Botnet Puts Up Defenses And Starts Attacking Back.
