Indian `denial of service' attack on Pakistan claimed. (Security News).Sophos reported that a widespread internet worm (networking, security) Internet Worm - The November 1988 worm perpetrated by Robert T. Morris. The worm was a program which took advantage of bugs in the Sun Unix sendmail program, Vax programs, and other security loopholes to distribute itself to over 6000 computers on the was launched in an attack on the Pakistan Government's website encouraging Indian hackers and virus writers to join forces and attack Pakistan. The W32/Yaha-E worm highlights the current political tensions between India and Pakistan by attempting a rudimentary 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. on the Pakistan Government's website. It also created a file on infected computers, exhorting others to join the fight against Pakistan. Comment Previous politically-motivated viruses include the Injustice worm (also known as VBS/Staple-A), which disseminated pro-Palestinian messages and spammed a number of Israeli Government email addresses See Internet address. , and Mawanella (also known as VBS/VBSWG-Z) which highlighted the friction between Muslims and Buddhists in Sri Lanka Sri Lanka (srē läng`kə) [Sinhalese,=resplendent land], formerly Ceylon, ancient Taprobane, officially Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, island republic (2005 est. pop. . The Yaha-E worm arrived as an email attachment See e-mail attachment. which can use a wide assortment of subject lines and filenames. Many of the subject lines use wording related to friendship or love. Sophos made protection against W32/Yaha-E available on 20th June 2002, and reminds users that if they have kept their anti-virus protection fully updated they should have nothing to fear. More information about this worm can be found at http://www.sophos.com/virusinfo/articles/yahae.html |
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