"We don't need no education"--Netsky-Z worm contains website attack.Researchers at Sophos are warning users of the latest variant of the prevalent Netsky worm, Netsky-Z (W32/Netsky-Z), which is spreading in the wild. The worm is capable of turning infected computers into launchpads for an attack designed to knock a number of websites off the internet. Hidden inside the worm is a clock, ticking ticking a coat color pigmentation pattern in which hairs of one color are distributed in small groups throughout the background color, e.g. Australian cattle dog. Called also speckling. down until early May when it is designed to launch a distributed denial of service attack An assault on a network that floods it with so many additional requests that regular traffic is either slowed or completely interrupted. Unlike a virus or worm, which can cause severe damage to databases, a denial of service attack interrupts network service for some period. against three websites with an educational focus--www.educ.ch, is designed to launch a distributed denial of service attack against three websites with an educational focus--www.educ.ch, www.medinfo.ufl.edu and www.nibis.de--based in Switzerland, USA, and Germany Two earlier spreading variants of Netsky (Netsky-X and Netsky-Y) have also scheduled attacks against the same websites, but these are programmed to cease at the end of April. Comment "It's anyone's guess why this virus writer is targeting these websites with a denial of service attack. Maybe he or she has a grudge grudge tr.v. grudged, grudg·ing, grudg·es 1. To be reluctant to give or admit: even grudged the tuition money. 2. against them," said Sophos. "Earlier strains of Netsky have focused on file sharing Copying files from one computer to another. See peer-to-peer network, file sharing protocol and file and printer sharing. websites such as KaZaA. The different flavours of Netsky have dominated the virus landscape this year, and despite the similarities between several of the worms, computers users are still getting caught out. Everyone should ensure that their anti-virus software anti-virus software n → Antivirensoftware f is updated and learn to treat all email attachments--even those which come with apparently innocuous in·noc·u·ous adj. Having no adverse effect; harmless. innocuous (i·näˈ·kyōō· subject lines--with caution." Netsky-Z spreads via email, using the same subject lines, including 'Information', 'Document' and 'Important', as its predecessors. The worm arrives in a file with an attached ZIP file (1) A file that contains one or more files that have been compressed into the ZIP format. Also called a "ZIP archive," "zipped file" or "zipped archive," the ZIP algorithm is the most popular compression method in use. Not Just the . with file names such as 'Bill.zip', 'Important.zip' and 'Details.zip'. "It seems sadly inevitable that there will be future versions of the Netsky worm, and some people may wonder what we will call them now we have seemingly reached the end of the road with Netsky-Z. The simple answer is we start at the beginning of the alphabet again with Netsky-AA," Further details about Netsky-Z can be found at: http://www.sophos.com/virusinfo/analyses/w32netskyz.html |
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