|
Virus: "Valentine's Day" Storm Worm.
Example: [Collected via e-mail, January 2008]
Origins: The "Storm Worm" (so named because the spam In Janaury 2008, Storm Worm lures began appearing in the form of The underlying worm is the same one that has appeared in messages with subject lines as "You've received an e-card from an admirer," the "Laughing Kitty," the "Dancing Skeleton," as well as several game and music download offers. According to spamtrackers.eu:
The storm network is large enough to cut off internet access from any
institution its operators choose to attack via a "distributed denial of
service attack," in which hundreds or thousands of computers request files
This version of the Storm Worm should not be confused with the "Be My Valentine" hoax virus warning from 2000.
Storm is a serious threat for several reasons. It communicates "peer-to-peer" instead of via a "command and control" network. For that reason, you can't just disable a few computers that are feeding instructions to the others. The virus download is encrypted, so it is difficult for antivirus programs to recognize, and infected computers are updated by the peer network on a daily basis to keep antivirus programs from recognizing it once they are updated to recognize previous editions of the virus. The number of infections worldwide is massive, and a quarter of them are on major networks in the US like SBC, Comcast, and Roadrunner. That means that a bank or other business under denial of service attack can't simply block all traffic from certain segments of the internet, because it would be blocking its own users that are sharing those same internet addresses with storm infected computers as they log in and out of the internet. It is believed that Storm's operators are located in St. Petersburg, Russia, are known to the Russian government, and enjoy its protection. Since antivirus programs will not protect your computer, the most important thing is for people to be extremely suspicious about where they go and what they click on. Never click on any link in an email from someone you don't know. Never click on a link in an advertisement on the Last updated: 3 February 2008 Urban Legends Reference Pages © 1995-2008 by snopes.com. This material may not be reproduced without permission. snopes and the snopes.com logo are registered service marks of snopes.com.  Sources:
|
|
