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Zotob Worm Hits CNN and Goes Global
securitas writes "The Zotob MS05-039 worm mentioned on Slashdot last Sunday may be the most recent virus that has gone global, hitting Windows 2000 desktops at CNN, ABC, the New York Times, and many others. The virus is spreading around the world rapidly as compromised systems become bots and propagate the worm, with reported outbreaks in Germany and China. InformationWeek has a decent article titled Zotob Proves Patching "Window" Non-Existent. Microsoft calls it a "low impact" threat and tells you What you should know about Zotob. Symantec has W32.Zotob.D removal instructions. Trend Micro thinks that this is a new, different worm altogether and says it is one of the fastest-spreading infections in history."
It doesn't effect Windows XP, so Microsoft will just go "You should of updated". Which will lead to more sales of XP by the masses beliving they need the latest OS to "be safe".
I like muppets.
All of a sudden, a worm makes mainstream news because it invaded CNN's network. I guess that is a sad indicator of what it takes to raise awareness.
C|N>K
160 dead in Venezuela Crash, Gaza Pull out and Paul Abdul's Idol issues.
I doubt it - yet it's front page on CNN.COM...
EMail: 0110001101100010010000000110001101110010 0110000101111010011011100110000101110010 0010111001100011011011110110
why a company like CNN and ABC with billions of dollars in revenue is still running unpatched windows 2000 computers.
did you forget to take your meds?
You seem to have left a few out.
If OS is Windows 95, No
If OS is Windows 98, No
If OS is Windows ME, No
If OS is Windows XP, No
If OS is up to date with security patches, no
Or just to make it easier
If ((OS != Windows 2000)&&(System.HasAllTheSecurityUpdates != True))
Then Could be.
Probably to artificially increase search hits to web sites.
In theory, Windows Update and automatic updates via Control Panel don't require validation, but Microsoft Update and manual downloads via the download center do. If things work as advertised, you can get security fixes without validating.
Of course, don't forget the words in bold. I've had to validate my Windows XP box twice without changing any hardware. Fortunately my Linux boxes don't need any stinking validation to update via yum.
Major media corp IT depts badly behind in patching their systems, news at 11!
Honestly Zotob is a joke. I work IT for a major university thats 95% win 2k and xp, and so far we've had 0 zotob infections. I wouldnt be surprised if we eventually got 1 or 2 here and there with old boxes that arent tied into the domain, but the vast majority of the workstations auto update themselves and hence this is a non issue for any properly run network.
Lawyers, MBA's, RIAA? A jedi fears not these things!
and for hours, only the international edition of CNN carried it on the front page. The US edition didn't. Actually, BBC wasn't much better, with just a small link on the side at the top of its news page.
I'm not really surprised, just sad. Celebrities hold more interest in the US than most other news stories, and forget international news, unless it involves (some of the many) ongoing wars.
So, MS, who desperately wants the 50% or so of entrenched businesses still on 2000 to upgrade, claims this worm is "low impact" hmm?
Clearly, MS is implying the solution is to upgrade to XP. From their site: If you are using any supported version of Windows other than Windows 2000, you are not at risk from Zotob and its variants.
How convenient! Really, why do I think the first answer to Bill's brainstorming marketing session on "How do we get people to move off 2000?" was some smart-ass saying "Well, we could always write a virus or worm for it."
After all, any notion of "irreperable harm" from security threats has vanished in the onslaught on the Windows hegemony. One little, "not so bad" worm wouldn't really hurt the Windows reputation any more than it already has been, and it sure would be a nice kick-in-the-pants for those businesses sitting on the 2000 fence.
Just saying^H^H^H^H^H^Hpostulating.
If people would stop writing Windows code that depeneded upon undefined behaviour, then things would be a heck of a lot better!
While you and I might agree that MS should stop developing Microsoft Office (which depends on undefined behavior, i.e. undocumented system calls) there are people dependent on Word and Excel for their daily work who would disagree.
resigned
Basically, the subject says it all.
Now that Microsoft is checking PCs for valid installation keys before you can get security updates, it won't be long before pirated installs of XP become a host for all sorts of nasty shit. And because it's pirated, they will not be able to prevent further revisions of this virus from infecting their PC and thus spreading it around perpetually.
Fuck, there goes my low ping rate for multi-player gaming due to the increase in traffic...so I would imagine.
Life is not for the lazy.
Maybe that's why I got an error message from Google saying either I, or someone in the same neighborhood as I am has been sending them too many automated searches. I couldn't use Google for over an hour. It was torture.
Not a Twitter sockpuppet... but I wish I was.
and the like are all in a hard place.
As much as they would like very much to have a stable OS (OS X, Linux, BSD. any stable OS, dag nabbit,) they have developped software on their own for their own purposes (Microsoft doesn't make everything, ya kno',) and their budgets don't allow for the kinds of redeployment costs associated with a new OS or even a new version of an old OS. (The roll out costs to Microsoft's clients dwarfs the cost of the OS. If only it wasn't a POS.)
I was working at a client's who were heart-broken when WinNT got end-of-lifes. They had to gear up for deployment of 20 or 30 THOUSAND systems to Win2K...
And poor ol' Microsoft can't upgrade the APIs like they need to because of clients like mine. (Which is why also Linux is having a hard time getting in. It has to WORK from the 'get go.')
Fuck the GUI, its the API that are the hold up.
And as long as Windows can't change the APIs they don't have the lattitude to change the OS so stupid shit like this worm can't happen.
If Linux can deliver APIs that are the same as Windows, its got it made. Until then, its out in the cold.
MSBPodcast.com The opinions expressed here are my own. If you don't like 'em... Think up your own stuff.
It makes perfect sense.
All these worms are written by spammers who want to turn the machines into zombied SMTP servers. They want to disable other exploitive processes.
If all major ISPs filtered port 25 traffic (like AOL does) from anyplace other than their in-house SMTP gateways, you'd see worm activity drop to almost nothing. It's all about spamming. And the feds don't seem to care. Sooner or later, the major broadband providers will act responsibly and stop their clients from becoming spam zombies, then there won't be much of a need for these worms to be released. That's what they're all about: spamming.
Zotob might be what most people need to clean up their spyware.....
That was my first thought too. Although it probably will end up to BE spyware that's just eliminating the competition.
I guess I've been out of the industry so long that I foget that Windows admins take hourly or daily crashes for granted.
Sorry, but the companies where that happens should really hire competent people instead of letting the secretary manage their IT infratructure. We use winxp, but crashes are extremely rare (say... 1 per year or so). Severely restricting users' privileges to mess with the system helps a lot of course...
If you use decent hardware, and install the OS + software correctly, windows XP can be rock stable too, just like linux (although the latter one tends to be a bit more forgiving in certain circumstances).
(OK, now mod me down with this if you're a linux zealot)