Posts Tagged ‘worm’

2001- Jan de Wit – a.k.a. “OnTheFly” sends out an email stating that it is a picture of the famous tennis player. Of course it turned out to be a a Worm that takes down tens of thousands of computers. Most companies will shut off their email to the world just to prevent from getting it. De Wit would then be arrested two days later and sentenced to 150 hours community service.

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Other Historical Events in Technology

• Packard Bell employee opens fire
• Windows NT 4.0 and 2000 source code is leaked

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2008 – After a long court battle with the Santa Cruz Operations (SCO) group, a judge rules that Novell is the owner of UNIX and UNIXWare copyrights. In 2003 – just after SCO changed their name from Caldera – had made a claim that the SCO IP was incorporated into Linux and that they should get a cut from each copy sold. Novell states that they own the code to UNIX and therefore this claim was not valid. The battle went on, and still goes on to this day, with SCO group dwindled down to a shell (no pun intended). Part of the rulings on this case have been reversed since.

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Other Day in Tech History items:

• BadTrans worm is released
• AOL acquires Netscape Communications
• Nolan Bushnell patents the Pong controller

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1993 – Microsoft releases the OS Windows for Workgroups 3.11 – which is the last big release before Windows 95. It was built to connect better with Windows NT for businesses. It also had updates to improve stability and system performance.

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Other Day in Tech History items

• Bubbleboy worm
• DirectX 9 is released
• Eric Schmidt bows out of Barak Obama’s search for a CTO

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Possibly, argues some persons interviewed by the New York Times. Attacks against operating systems are decreasing in favor of attacks against vulnerable programs and against websites.

This is no surprise. Computer security–indeed, most security–follows a “catch-up” model: assess what’s going on and defend against it. As defenses improve, attackers naturally move on to different targets.

I used to work for a company that manufactured physical security products, primarily anti-theft and access control software and hardware (I was in the access control support and training function). It was accepted within the company that security could not keep persons from stealing; it could only keep them from stealing from you.

When you buy a better lock, the bad guys will just go down the street till they find a house with a weaker lock.

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• Big Apple Rockin day
  • Steve Jobs on organ donation
  • New iPods
  • RHAPSODY!
  • iPhone & iPod ramping up games?
    • Madden10
  • Motorola just announced – Android on Cliq
    • Android gets Facebook, Pandora
  • Palm Pixi
• Googleopoly?
  • Books under fire
  • Google helping newspapers
  • EU and FTC toying at antitrust issues
• Wordpress 2.8.4
  • Major hack attack over the weekend.
  • Wordpress.com OK, but hosted should be at 2.8.4
  • Plugins that can help
    • AskApache
    • Hash Checker
    • Akismet
    • Disable Core Updates
• Windows 7 Attack
  • Conficker like worm
  • No fix
  • Vista and Windows 7
• Is 3D a new wave or a Fad?
  • CES – 3D
  • New HD3D sets
  • 3D takes more brain process
  • 3D Live production truck – Supershooter 3D.

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The New York Times speculates on what the Conflicker worm is all about. Read the full story here:

Speculation about Conficker’s purpose ranges from the benign — an April Fool’s Day prank — to far darker notions. One likely possibility is that the program will be used in the “rent-a-computer-crook” business, something that has been tried previously by the computer underground. Just like Amazon.com offers computing time on its network for rent, the Conficker team might rent access to its “network” for nefarious purposes like spamming.

Make sure your Windows boxes are updated, your firewalls are secure, and your anti-malware programs are current.

Judging by this description from McAfee, when Koobface infects a computer, it connects to the net and downloads additional malware. Here’s one item it attempts to download.

The worm uses social engineering to spread. It sends users bogus messages posing as an invitation to watch a video and prompts the user to download malware disguised as an Adobe flash plugin.

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Jury Duty over – Last Snowfalls – Dell Upgrade – Laptop WiFi – Mardi Gras – Web pages – Frank installing Debian Linux – Finally fed up with AT&T

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All Show Notes are also on Delicious

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According to the Register, Microsoft has issued a substantial reward for the author of the Conflicker (or Downadup) worm. Story here. More about Conflicker here.

Full Disclosure: I’ve found that stories in The Register need to be read critically, not because The Register makes stuff up, but, in a choice between snark and accuracy, it leans towards snark. Given that, it’s still one of my favorite websites.