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The Origin Of Sobig (And Its Next Phase)

Posted by timothy on from the 5-percent-is-plenty dept.

MrZeebo writes "According to this story at Canada.com, the FBI, along with other authorities, have traced the origin of the Sobig worm. The quick timeline: Apparently, an earlier version of the worm installed a backdoor on a home computer in British Columbia. The creator of the worm used this compromised computer to create a Usenet account with Easynews.com in Phoenix, using a stolen credit card. The worm spread from Usenet, and contained the IP addresses of 20 computers to contact on Friday, and to download an unknown program from those computers. Officials were able to take 19 of these computers offline before the mass-download. However, the 20th computer stayed online, and many copies of the worm were able to get the rogue program. Those that did were merely redirected to a porn site, no damage done. However, now infected computers will continue to try and connect to the other 19 every Friday and Sunday until the worm expires on Sept. 10th." Reader muldoonaz points out this brief Reuters story about the investigation, too.

9 of 500 comments (clear)

  1. Re: Wicked screensaver by JohnGrahamCumming · · Score: 4, Funny

    Please see the attached file for details.

  2. Re: Wicked screensaver by mjmalone · · Score: 4, Funny
    WARNING!!! (from zidane.cc.vt.edu)

    The following message attachments were flagged by the antivirus scanner:

    Attachment [2.2] application.pif, virus infected: W32/Sobig-F. Action taken: deleted
    PWN'D
    --
    Visualize the world of wine
  3. Re:What a nice guy though by EpsCylonB · · Score: 5, Funny

    Anyone else think this sounds like a bad hollywood plot ?

    We only have 48 hours to shut down 20 randomn computers or the internet is brought to it's knees.

  4. Already exists by Ciderx · · Score: 4, Funny

    Its called "W32/SitePostedOnSlashdot"

  5. No Problems Here by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    I don't have any friends so I don't really get any e-mail.

  6. this is why by commodoresloat · · Score: 4, Funny

    This is why worms need to be open source. Proprietary worms do a disservice to the worm community!

  7. Re: Wicked screensaver by ChilyWily · · Score: 5, Funny

    hehe- Couldn't resist: Today's userfriendly strip is perfect :)

  8. Re:Question by Bin-tec · · Score: 4, Funny

    So, when will us Mac users going to get some excitement with some viruses? I'm kinda bored about clicking on those links that won't do anything.

  9. No damage by Arandir · · Score: 4, Funny

    Those that did were merely redirected to a porn site, no damage done.

    No damage done! My dear poor mother got redirected to goatse.cx! The psychiatry bills alone will cost a quarter of a million dollars.

    --
    A Government Is a Body of People, Usually Notably Ungoverned