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Feds Working to Stop Worms

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the information-superhighway-patrol dept.

mbenzi writes "This article from GovExec describes how the feds worked to prevent a worm that could have been orders of magnitude worse than Code Red. Short on details, but an interesting timeline."

6 of 248 comments (clear)

  1. Not really karmawhoring by KjetilK · · Score: 0, Informative

    I'm not really karmawhoring, because I hit the Karma Kap long ago, I'm just linking to the Warhol Worm... :-)

    --
    Employee of Inrupt, Project Release Manager and Community Manager for Solid
  2. Anatomy of the web application worm by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative


    http://www.cgisecurity.com/articles/worms.shtml

  3. Leaves is real! PROOF! by new_breed · · Score: 2, Informative

    http://www.iwar.org.uk/cip/resources/news/advisory 01-014.htm

    Here's a warning from 06/23/2001. Long live google!

  4. Better than this article... by Yekrats · · Score: 4, Informative

    I found Steve Gibson's description of battling a DDoS attack having more technical information, and being much more entertaining at the same time. He's the author of "Shields UP!!" and other Internet security software. A good read for geeks.

    --
    Ceci n'est pas une pipe.
  5. NAI's information about this worm. by CodeWheeney · · Score: 2, Informative

    NAI's AVERT Listing for this worm/virus/doomsday device/shark with laser beam.

    Seems that there shouldn't exist Tens of thousands of computers containing now-dormant Leaves worms await instructions from their master. Should they ever again awaken, a posse will be waiting. since the AV companies can detect and remove it.

    Sheesh, what a crap article.

    --
    C8H10N4O2 | Developer > Code
  6. Did anybody else catch this? by AyeRoxor! · · Score: 2, Informative
    "Code Red made headline news. The FBI, the White House and security companies launched a coordinated campaign to track it, warn the public and take steps to protect vulnerable systems. Crippling of the White House Web site was narrowly avoided; Pentagon Internet connections were temporarily shut off. Damage was significant--estimates are in the billions of dollars--but it would have been worse had the response not been as fast and well organized."

    And the end result? They captured the creator of something that did no damage, apparently at the expense of letting the Code Red creator go unpunished. WTF?

    • "In a few hours, Code Red had eaten into more than 100,000 servers worldwide"
    • "With 20,000 zombies to click for him, Mr. Leaves could make a killing."
    • They honed [their skills] battling Code Red. But fighting [Code Red left] Leaves on the back burner.
      • This is a bad thing?

    • But here's the best part:

    • In the aftermath of the attack, companies would spend billions of dollars plugging the holes that let Code Red enter. [...] No perpetrator has [ever] been identified.
    • [The creator of] Leaves [never used the worm to cause any] major damage before the posse rounded him up. [...] The FBI never [even] found evidence the hacker had stolen money using the worm.


    But that's the guy we caught.