The MSBlaster Worm “mushroomed into a full-blown Internet attack Tuesday, affecting as many as 1.4 million computers worldwide, according to a leading government Internet security center,” report Aaron Davis and Kristi Heim for The Mercury News. “[MSBlaster] left a wide swath of bewildered computer users in its path, crippling some companies and government agencies — like the Maryland Department of Motor Vehicles, which was forced to close its doors at noon. The worm could still deliver a punch Saturday, when it’s programmed to harness the power of all infected computers and direct them to simultaneously attack the very Microsoft Web site used to distribute software patches to prevent Internet attacks.”
“…computer users were just beginning Tuesday to face the daunting cleanup from MSBlaster, a messy process that could take weeks and cost hundreds of millions of dollars in lost productivity, experts said,” Davis and Heim report.
“The worm created a nightmare earlier Tuesday for many home users trying to fix their systems. The instructions for cleaning the worm from infected computers span several pages; and, for those who could locate the patch, the worm caused their computers to restart every few minutes, keeping them from staying connected to the Internet long enough to complete the fix,” Davis and Heim report.
“Anti-virus software maker Symantec in Cupertino estimated that 167,000 machines had been infected with the worm Tuesday. Many were home users, according to security experts, because the worm seemed to target Windows XP the most, which is used commonly on personal computers… now that the script for the worm is out in public, other hackers could add variations to it in coming days to make it spread faster and further,” Davis and Heim report.
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Macintosh computers are unaffected by the MSBlaster worm. Think of all the Macs you could’ve bought with “hundreds of millions of dollars.” Perhaps the hardest hit, undoubtedly those wedded firmly to homogenous Microsoft Windows networks, will wake up and realize that diversity of platforms is the best course to chart for the future.