A nasty worm has wriggled into millions of computers and could be the biggest virus ever, leaving security experts wondering whether it is a harbinger of evil deeds to come.
US software protection firm F-Secure said on Tuesday a computer worm known as “Conficker” or “Downadup” had infected more than 9 million computers and was spreading at a rate of 1 million machines per day.
The malicious software had yet to do any noticeable damage, prompting debate as to whether it is impotent, waiting to detonate or a test run by cybercriminals.
“This is enormous; possibly the biggest virus we have ever seen,” software security specialist David Perry of Trend Micro said.
“I think the bad guys are field-testing a new technology. If Conficker proves to work well, they could go out and sell malware [malicious software] to people. There is a huge market for selling criminal malware.”
The worm takes advantage of networks or computers that haven’t kept up to date with security patches for the Windows RPC Server Service.
It can infect machines from the Internet or by hiding on USB memory sticks. Once in a computer it digs deep, setting up defenses that make it hard to extract.
“Here we are with a big, big outbreak and they keep revamping their methodology to increase the size of it,” Perry said. “They could be growing this huge botnet to slice it up and sell it on the criminal market.”
Microsoft said it was aware of the Conficker “worm family” and had modified its free Malicious Software Removal Tool to detect and get rid of infections.
A troubling aspect of Conficker is that it harnesses computing power of a botnet to crack passwords.
Repeated “guesses” at passwords by a botnet have caused some computer users to be locked out of files or machines that automatically disable access after certain numbers of failed tries.
“Downadup uses brute force from the infected network of botnets to break the password of the machine being attacked,” Perry said. “That is something never seen before and I find it disturbing.”
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
TRUMP EFFECT: The win capped one of the most dramatic turnarounds in Canadian political history after the Conservatives had led the Liberals by more than 20 points Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday pledged to win US President Donald Trump’s trade war after winning Canada’s election and leading his Liberal Party to another term in power. Following a campaign dominated by Trump’s tariffs and annexation threats, Carney promised to chart “a new path forward” in a world “fundamentally changed” by a US that is newly hostile to free trade. “We are over the shock of the American betrayal, but we should never forget the lessons,” said Carney, who led the central banks of Canada and the UK before entering politics earlier this year. “We will win this trade war and
Armed with 4,000 eggs and a truckload of sugar and cream, French pastry chefs on Wednesday completed a 121.8m-long strawberry cake that they have claimed is the world’s longest ever made. Youssef El Gatou brought together 20 chefs to make the 1.2 tonne masterpiece that took a week to complete and was set out on tables in an ice rink in the Paris suburb town of Argenteuil for residents to inspect. The effort overtook a 100.48m-long strawberry cake made in the Italian town of San Mauro Torinese in 2019. El Gatou’s cake also used 350kg of strawberries, 150kg of sugar and 415kg of
RSS