MyDoom Strikes Again

Renegade334 writes "Months after the last attack of MyDoom, MyDoom.AI returns. Like usual it was spread by e-mails with claims to have attachments that contain passwords for adult websites."

Comments

Yay

[Anonymous Coward]

The virus companies write variants and release them to enforce the upgrades. I worked at a popular AV company doing front end work, not the actual engine, and when we got together for drinks the engine writers would talk about upgrade paths from what they were working on. Ever wonder why most viruses don't destroy your system? Because there's no money in an erased system. There is a lot of money in AV upgrades.

Re:Yay

[Damhna]

True-ish.

The reasons why we are seeing a move away from the destructive payloads of yesteryear is that there is a lot more money to be made in compromising systems.

Whether the intention is to harvest a shedload of zombie remailers for spam markering or for some of the recently seen rogues capable of using a 'distributed computing' model for decrytpting databases there is lots of money in malware.

True , there is indeed a lot of money made by the AV companies for upgraded and improved software,stragey and infrasturcture consultation services. This is becasue companies are waking up to realise that they are no longer looking at script kiddies or disgruntled employees as the most likely vector but rather, well financed, educated professionals.

Companies could once upon a time hide behind the "why would anyone target us ? We're small" mentality.
No longer.

Got Bandwidth ?
Got CPU ?
You are a target.

Last time..

[wpiman]

Last time our company got taken down by this thing-- the IT department got it fixed after two days.. In that week's company newsletter- there was a report about how quick our IT department worked to fix the problem. Guess who authored it- head of the IT department.

What they failed to mention was that they never did the critical updates that would have prevented this. Way to go guys. I guess it is all about how you report it.

I already have 6 of these.

[SteelV]

I already got 6 of these in my gmail account, from people I don't know. Thankfully, they all ended up in the spam folder. Nice!

Re:Actually, it's under control

[maxwell demon]

Unless they use a mailer which doesn't show images ... but then, they probably won't open random attachments anyway.

Re:this is IT !! i'm outta here.

[innerweb]

This is the right attitude. It used to bother me that my clients would not listen and do things that were good for them (even the simple easy dirt cheap things), then I figured out, it is all about comfort levels. If the client is comfortable where things are they will not change. SO, now I simply give them a written explanation of what they need to do (or not do), and list the fee for fixing each of the problems they might encounter if they do not do as instructed. Get this, many have actually thanked me for letting them know the cost of fixing things up front. Instead of just doing things the right way, they were happy to have a dollar amount they could plug into their projected expenses. If that does not tell you anything, nothing will.

We recently had major flooding. Several of my clients have businesses in the flood zone (much cheaper rent). Most of those followed my advice and moved their hardware upstairs. A few did not and are not paying me major bucks for reinstalling, rebuilding and recovering everything they need. If they had just taken a day and moved eveything the first time (they are all now moving upstairs), then they would have saved much money and even more downtime.

But, in the end, how they run their business is their choice. All I can do is offer my advice and hope they listen.

InnerWeb

Re:this is IT !! i'm outta here.

[EmperorKagato]

I agree. As a fellow member in the IT field you have to show why they should care. Especially users who are on your IT department's #1 call on the help desk list. Members of my department and I who respond to virus reports usually talk with them while cleaning their computers and try to give them an enjoyable experience while waiting for Ad-aware to clean up 1000 adware objects on a Gateway 350mhz P2.

If you show that you care about them. They will care more about work than personal browsing.