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FLAW IN MICROSOFT INTERNET EXPLORER
Windows users are being warned about a bug that lets attackers take over a PC via the Internet Explorer browser. The bug made possible webpages that can compromise a PC without a user spotting the attack, Microsoft warned. Code to exploit the bug was circulating online which led Microsoft to label the bug "critical" and said users should apply a patch immediately. If properly exploited the bug would allow an attacker to download a program onto a victim's PC and take remote control of that machine. Security firm Symantec said it had seen the loophole being exploited online. As Microsoft was issuing warnings about the critical bug in its browser, the makers of the popular rival browser Firefox were releasing details of a similar problem with its program. The bug found in the Firefox browser would also allow attackers to download code via well-crafted websites that hands control over to them. Patching the bug became more urgent as a hacker posted computer code to exploit the bug to a website at the weekend.
Extract taken from BBC News-15th December 2005
NEW SOBER WORM EXPECTED JANUARY 5TH!
A new "Sober" worm is set to hit in January in an attack tied to the founding of the Nazi party that could slow the Internet with tens of millions of politically-motivated spam e-mails. The impending outbreak is the latest variant of a worm that that last hit the Internet on November 22nd and marked the most prolific computer virus of its kind this year. The worm is scheduled to hit on January 5, a date it said marked the 87th anniversary of the founding of the Nazi party. The Sober worm is likely to send out a new variant of itself and deluge computers with politically-motivated spam as it did in the past. Security experts also said the worm appears to be timed to coincide with a major German political convention the next day to increase the worm's notoriety and to help spread it. You have been warned people!
- extract taken from msnbc.com: 14 December 2005
SOBER Y
It looks like an
email from the FBI, or a note promising pictures of Paris Hilton- but some
anti-virus companies are now calling it the most widespread computer virus
outbreak of the year. Sober Y, the latest variation of a computer virus that
was first released almost two years ago, surprised analysts by gaining traction
and rocketing millions of emails around the world. Message
Labs a software company that filters emails said it had stopped
three million copies of Sober-infected emails in the first 24 hours after
the virus began circulating.
Sober has been successful, experts say, because it piggybacks on earlier versions
of the virus that have already infected computers. Those computers- perhaps
tens of thousands around the world, form a "bot-net" network that's
controlled by the virus writer.
The virus is also spreading because its email message is just enticing enough to trick recipients. In addition to the Paris Hilton and FBI versions, other emails purport to come from German authorities who've caught a recipient downloading illegal music; or the CIA, accusing the recipient of visiting illegal Web sites. There's even a version that looks like its an automatic message indicating an attempted e-mail has failed, known as a "bounce."
One piece of good news: To become infected, recipients must click on the attachment, which is zipped, then unpack the zipped file, and then agree to run the executable file that appears. That provides several chances for a consumer to realize something is suspicious.
- extract taken from msnbc.com: 21st November 2005
