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Storm and the Future of Social Engineering

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the worming-around-under-my-skin dept.

Albert writes "Storm shows several key characteristics, some new and advanced. It uses cunning social engineering techniques — such as tying spam campaigns to a current event or site of interest — as well as a blend of email and the Web to spread. It is highly coordinated, yet decentralized — and with Storm using the latest generation of P2P technology, it cannot be disabled by simply 'cutting off its head.' In addition, Storm is self-propagating — once infected, computers send out massive amounts of Storm spam to keep recruiting new nodes."

9 of 77 comments (clear)

  1. aim lower, for the honour of the old school by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    it cannot be disabled by simply 'cutting off its head.' Off with their goolies!
  2. Sounds like Prey by Atheose · · Score: 3, Funny

    Paging Michael Crichton?

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prey_(novel)

  3. Lets get the ISPs involved! by thomasdz · · Score: 5, Funny


    Since the article mentions "and with Storm using the latest generation of P2P technology"
    I think the only reasonable solution to this is to for all of us to call our ISPs and demand that this "P2P" thing be either throttled back or somehow forced to stop, perhaps by sending out fake RST packets whenever the ISP sees "P2P traffic. Yeah, let's all do that so we can nip this Storm bot in the bud.

    --
    Karma: Excellent. 15 moderator points expire sometime.
  4. Re:Why. . ? by Cormacus · · Score: 1, Funny

    Thats exactly what someone who had been infected would say.

    --
    Mon chien, il n'a pas du nez. Comment scent-il? TrÃs mauvais!
  5. Never give out your password... by scrib · · Score: 3, Funny

    Hi Eric Please forward us the username and password that your using so we can login and test this problem Never give out your password - to people who use the wrong homophone!
    --
    Help! Help! I'm being repressed!
    1. Re:Never give out your password... by cizoozic · · Score: 2, Funny

      Hi Eric Please forward us the username and password that your using so we can login and test this problem
      Never give out your password - to people who use the wrong homophone!
      ummm... "you're" and "your" are not homophones. Yeah, yeah, we've all heard it before, they're "just roommates."
  6. Re:Self created problem? by Alpha+Whisky · · Score: 3, Funny
    I hope for his sake he never signed a contract with them agreeing the, otherwise unenforceable, clause:

    Copying or disseminating any of this message is prohibited. Somehow, I suspect, posting the whole email to Slashdot might just count as disseminating. Actually, come to think of it, I just Copied and disseminated a bit of their email, and do I care?
    --
    it's = it is

    its = belonging to it

  7. Re:How is this news? by somersault · · Score: 4, Funny

    ***BUY CHEAP MEDS - VIAGRA 100mg * 30 ONLY $89.95*** Link please?
    --
    which is totally what she said
  8. Re:Self created problem? by Chrisq · · Score: 2, Funny

    I'd rather inseminate than deseminate