Are You Prepared for the Kama Sutra Worm Attack on Friday?

[Math Is Hard]

Watch out for those dirty emails on Friday:
http://news.zdnet.com/2100-1009_22-6031881.html

Businesses have been warned to brace themselves for a possible traffic spike next week caused by the Kama Sutra worm.

The virus, dubbed Nyxem.E among other names, was first reported on Jan. 16. It is thought to have infected more than half a million PCs. Security vendor IronPort warned Thursday that these machines are now hard-coded to propagate the virus on Feb. 3.

The Internet community will not know the scale of the February attack until it occurs. "It depends on how many hosts are infected," Steer said. "At the moment it's just sitting there quietly, and we won't know how many home users have been infected until Feb. 3."

Businesses should warn their employees not to open suspicious e-mails, and to know what these e-mails may look like. "The subject lines may contain some references to pornography--fairly typical stuff," Steer said.

 

[Moonbear]

Uh oh, now we'll know quickly enough who is opening emails about porn on their work computers. If the computers are already infected, and they know what it is, can't they detect it now, before it starts propagating?

 

[dduardo]

Microsoft's response is pretty good:

http://www.informationweek.com/news/showArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=DKSDTPBSRN2R0QSNDBCCKHSCJUMEKJVN?articleID=177105799

Basically, they have the sofware but they won't be releasing the removal tool until the infection hits.

I think this move is simply a way for Microsoft to push their next version of windows which should come out before the holiday seasons. They are going to say that Windows XP has a lot of security problems so you should upgrade.

 

[Moonbear]

They are going to say that Windows XP has a lot of security problems so you should upgrade.

Only microsoft could get away with a marketing strategy like that..."Our last product was a piece of crap, so you should buy our new product."

 

[franznietzsche]

Only microsoft could get away with a marketing strategy like that..."Our last product was a piece of crap, so you should buy our new product."

That is quite literally how they sold XP home edition. "Yeah, Windows ME was a piece of crap, so you really need XP."

 

[Anttech]

If the computers are already infected, and they know what it is, can't they detect it now, before it starts propagating?

Too many admins are sloppy... yeh they probably could contain it...

 

[franznietzsche]

Too many admins are sloppy... yeh they probably could contain it...

Most PCs don't have admins. Just users.

 

[Anttech]

Networks are what stop worms propagating, you can contain worms very easily from popogating across the www.