Computer security experts thwarted an attack by computer worm Sobig.F on Friday just as the FBI subpoenaed an Arizona Internet service provider in order to trace the fast-spreading virus experts believe was first posted on an adult-oriented Web site.
One expert said the Sobig.F e-mail virus was disguised so that anyone who clicked on a link purporting to show a sexually graphic picture became infected with the self-replicating worm, which then spread itself to other e-mail addresses.
"Sobig.F was first posted to a porn Usenet group," said Jimmy Kuo, research fellow at anti-virus software maker Network Associates Inc. Usenet is a popular forum on the Internet where computer users with similar interests post and read messages.
PHOTO: AFP
So far, as many as 100,000 computers have been infected with Sobig.F, which in turn has spewed "millions upon millions of infected e-mails" to other Internet users, Kuo added.
Sobig.F spreads when unsuspecting computer users open file attachments in e-mails that contain such familiar headings as "Thank You!," "Re: Details" or "Re: That Movie."
Once the file is opened, Sobig.F resends itself to e-mail addresses from the infected computer and signs the e-mail using a random name and address from the computer's address book.
Since Monday, computer users from South Korea to Norway have struggled to fend off attacks that have crippled corporate e-mail networks and have filled home users' inboxes with a glut of messages, before fanning out to find more victims.
Consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton, Air Canada, transport company CSX Corp and possibly the New York Times are among hundreds of companies that have suffered network attacks from recent viruses.
Employees at the New York Times headquarters in midtown Manhattan were asked to shut down their computers, but a spokesman declined to comment on the cause of the shutdown.
"We will not speculate on the cause, effect or scope of the problem ... We plan to get the paper out tomorrow."
Sobig.F was written to expire on Sept. 10, but experts said they expect another version to follow. This is the sixth version of the portentously named virus since it first appeared in January.
The worm has been clogging e-mail inboxes with a hidden command directing infected PCs to make contact with one of 20 vulnerable computers at 12:00 California time every Friday and Sunday until it expires, said Steve Trilling, chief researcher at anti-virus vendor Symantec Corp.
Government and industry security experts raced against the clock on Friday to take offline 19 of the 20 home computers, thwarting an attack before the 12 noon deadline, said Mikko Hypponen, anti-virus research manager at F-Secure of Finland.
The computers were located in the US, Canada and South Korea, he said.
The remaining master computer, which was in the US, was taken down shortly after the deadline, experts said.
Experts had worried that the timed attack would slow down Internet traffic and possibly set in motion a new set of commands to launch new attacks.
However, they cautioned that it was too early to tell whether the threat of Sobig.F had ended. The next expected attack could spur new problems, they said.
Internet service provider Easy-news.com of Phoenix, Arizona said it had been contacted by investigators by telephone on Thursday and the company was issued a subpoena on Friday.
"It looks like the original variant was posted through us to Usenet on the 18th [of August]," Michael Minor, the Internet service provider's chief technology officer, told reporters.
An FBI spokesman said the organization was working with the US Department of Homeland Security to investigate who was behind the e-mail attacks. He declined to comment further.
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day
Thousands of parents in Singapore are furious after a Cordlife Group Ltd (康盛人生集團), a major operator of cord blood banks in Asia, irreparably damaged their children’s samples through improper handling, with some now pursuing legal action. The ongoing case, one of the worst to hit the largely untested industry, has renewed concerns over companies marketing themselves to anxious parents with mostly unproven assurances. This has implications across the region, given Cordlife’s operations in Hong Kong, Macau, Indonesia, the Philippines and India. The parents paid for years to have their infants’ cord blood stored, with the understanding that the stem cells they contained