The MyDoom worm. Cyber warfare.
I got, oh, 200 emails with the worm yesterday, and more today. You’re no doubt getting them too. The worm is mutating, a new, just discovered variant attacks Microsoft.com, while the original attacks SCO.com (and appears to be doing it’s job rather well too, as the site is dead).
You non geeks out there must wonder, what is going on? Ok, SCO says they own Linux source code and that those using Linux open source software will now have to pay them royalties (it’s being litigated now, with IBM and Intel opposed to SCO). To the open source movement, this was a declaration of war. So, someone retaliated.
MyDoom is a worm that sends copies of itself to everyone in your email address book, and it includes the payload, a 22k zip file, which if opened and run, will, starting on Feb. 1 (although it appears to have already started) repeatedly and endlessly try to access SCO.com. Get the picure? Let’s say 10,000 PCs scattered worldwide all try to access SCO.com, oh, 20,000 times a day. The website would soon be non-functional. And that is the intent. To bring SCO and their website, to their knees
And now this new variant attacks Microsoft.com
For the deep geeks out there, this story has lots of detail.
PS If you 1) delete the emails when they come, 2) don’t open the zip files, and 3) update your antivirus software, you’ll be quite safe.
PPS
In response to being targeted by the MyDoom virus, which has been crowned in press reports as “the worst virus ever,” the SCO Group is offering a US$250,000 bounty for information leading to the arrest and conviction of its creator.