“A mass-mailing virus quickly spread through the Internet on Monday, compromising computers so that they attack the SCO Group’s Web server with a flood of data on Feb. 1, according to antivirus companies,” Robert Lemos reports for CNET News.com.
“The virus–known as MyDoom, Novarg and as a variant of the Mimail virus by different antivirus companies–arrives in an in-box with one of several different random subject lines, such as ‘Mail Delivery System,’ ‘Test’ or ‘Mail Transaction Failed.’ The body of the e-mail contains an executable file and a statement such as: ‘The message contains Unicode characters and has been sent as a binary attachment,'” Lemos reports.
“‘It’s huge,’ said Vincent Gullotto, vice president of security software maker Network Associates’ antivirus emergency response team. ‘We have it as a high-risk outbreak.’ In one hour, Network Associates itself received 19,500 e-mails bearing the virus from 3,400 unique Internet addresses, Gullotto said. One large telecommunications company has already shut down its e-mail gateway to stop the virus,” Lemos reports.
“Once the virus infects a Windows-running PC, it installs a program that allows the computer to be controlled remotely. The program primes the PC to send data to the SCO Group’s Web server, starting Feb. 1, a virus researcher said on the condition of anonymity. The SCO Group has incurred the wrath of the Linux community for its claims that important pieces of the open-source operating system are covered by SCO’s Unix copyrights. IBM, Novell and other Linux backers strongly dispute the claims,” Lemos reports.
“The virus installs a Windows program that opens up a ‘back door’ in the system, allowing an attacker to upload additional programs onto the compromised device. The back door also enables an intruder to route his connection through the infected computer to hide the source of an attack,” Lemos reports.
Computers running Apple’s Macintosh and Mac OS X operating systems are unaffected.
Full article here.
tsk…tsk, those pesky kids again! Poor lemmings! Whatever shall they do now?
Reason #325,342 to get a Macintosh.
E-Freakin’-Gads….this is not good. Not good at all. I’ve already notified my boss and we’re securing our ISP network as I type this.
Awww, man. Left out of all the fun again!
Oh, wait MacBuddy. That’s some more of that ‘great’ Windows software that you don’t want!
Hahahahaha..I just got it!!!!!!!!!!!!
LOL. To bad it doesn’t affect me. My roomate just got 12 of the same email. LOL. (But he uses Windows).
Makes me want to get a several PC’s and let them be borged, just for the f*ck of it. The SCO is just a paid puppet on Microsoft’s hand to thwart the spread of Linux.
—————————
By the way the these guys at Silent PC Review have been calling us Mac users “Macheads” and “cultists” in our competition in the Folding@home stats. They are right above us by only a few thousand points, just keeping out of reach.
We are tired of their BS and the entire Mac community is getting in to KICK THEIR COLLECTIVE ASSES.
So if you have a OS X capable machine take a second and download the Stanford Universities Folding@home and enter team number #1971.
The graphical version is easy to use and displays the protein your working on, it will use your SPARE cpu, and plays very NICE.
The links below is our web site, then Stanfords, then what Apple Computer says, then a thread at Apple Insider where we all have gathered to pool resources and provide information and instructions.
http://teammacosx.homeunix.com/
(forums may be closed because of exessive bandwidth)
http://www.stanford.edu/group/pandegroup/folding/
http://www.apple.com/scitech/stories/stanford/
http://forums.appleinsider.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=37239&perpage=40&pagenumber=1
(read the thread so you get a idea what’s going on and SPREAD THE WORD, thanks)
How come you never see the troll king AKA Joe McConnel posting in these threads?
How about it Joe?
Your beloved PC always looks the most pathetic during times like these doesn’t it?
I just got the email too lol! It’s subject was “Hello” and the body says “The message cannot be represented in 7-bit ASCII encoding and has been sent as a binary attachment.”
WOOT.
Foward it on! foward it on!
Ha, ha, stupid Windroids
I’m tired of their sh^t lately, can’t you tell?
I’ve already gotten 3 emails. It felt strange to be amused by unwanted email.
What’s that? It slams SCO’s server?
Damn! Yet another piece of useful Windows software that prolly won’t get ported to Mac. Why do I suffer through using this platform?!
Nobody has yet commented on the irony of attacking a *nix company by infecting windows machines with an email virus. They can’t directly attack SCO because *nix is not vulnerable, so they are getting at it indirectly by using the vulnerable windows operating system! Oprah should have this on her show: people that attack *nix using windows.
Joey Mc doesn’t show up because he’s too busy cleaning up after virus problems.
Now I have to take more flak at work tomorrow when they tell me that another piece of software is PC only. Boo hoo hoooooooo!
You know the PC bought and paid for press will bury this way down on their news item lists. However, if it were a Mac virus it would be covered like the second coming.
lets be nice now… some people say i spread pretty fast too!
and i’m virus-free :p
As soon as Longhorn makes Windows virus-free, then Mac fanatics will install viruses on their Macs so they can be different. That’s assuming it is possible to write a virus for the Mac. I’ve never seen or heard of one. Oh well.
“How come you never see the troll king AKA Joe McConnel posting in these threads?” – R.V.
Give the guy a break, man. He is probably disinfecting his computer now.
“and i’m virus-free :p” – Mac Beth
Virus is not the only thing that causes infections. There are worms too.
*ducks*
yeah and your lil “worm” probably has all KINDS of infections :0
Longhorn? Hahahahahahaha!
There is no Longhorn, and never will be. Microsoft will be in receivership by then. Even PC drones will balk at having all their files stored on MS’s servers. The whole concept of Longhorn is totally insane. “Trustworthy computing” from Microsoft – what a joke.
The latest virus should be called MSDoom, ‘cos that’s what it is.
Ooohhh I’m so scared!!!!
I’m getting flooded with these. Not to mention all the errors from ISPS RETURNING the virus to my domain–simply because the virus putting fake From addresses and some are non-existent people at my domain.
It’s aggravating, but I think… what if I had Windows? I cannot imagine the aggravation of having important data on a Windows box these days. I’d never sleep.
Yawn. Another virus update, tempting to forgot to upgrade everyone here in the office, especially considering the anti-Mac flak I have to put up with looking after their precious virus magnets – you can tell how much I enjoy my job!
All your code are belong to us.
There are no Windoze infidels in our servers. Never! My feelings – as usual – we will slaughter them all. Our initial assessment is that they will all die. I blame C-Net – they are marketing for the Windoze idiots! God will roast their stomachs in hell at the hands of our code warriors. They’re coming to surrender or be burned in their servers. No I am not scared, and neither should you be! Be assured. SCO headquarters is safe, protected. Who are in control, they are not in control of anything – they don’t even control their own bowels! We are not afraid of the Windoze users.� Allah has condemned them.� They are stupid.� They are stupid [dramatic pause] and they are condemned. The Windoze users, they always depend on a method what I call … stupid, silly. All I ask is check yourself. Do not in fact repeat their lies. I can say, and I am responsible for what I am saying, that they have
started to commit suicide under the walls of our headquarters. We
will encourage them to commit more suicides quickly.
— Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf
SCO Information Minister
Bollox to Windows… I’m absolutely disgusted that Bill Gates is swanning around telling Brits to be innovative. Since when has Microsoft been a success? It’s a disgraceful OS and should be outlawed immediately. It’s a simple fact that if Windows wasn’t here, viruses wouldn’t be here.
Argue amongst yourselves Windoze lovers, you know my comments are correct. Stop living in denial.
Got the message yesterday. Just once. Deleted it without opening. Also went to the Earthlink server and deleted it as well.