Working with the FBI, Microsoft authorities in Morocco and Turkey have arrested the 2 suspected virus writers. Farid Essebar, 18 of Morocco and Atilla Ekici, 21, of Turkey are now in custody.
Zytob and Rbot along with Mytob are the viruses in question. Only affecting un-patched Microsoft 2000 systems, it still caused problems in over 100 U.S. companies, including the media like CNN and the New York Times.
The viruses targeted a recent flaw found in the way Windows 2000 handles Plug and Play. If affected the computer would randomly reboot and shut off, and could be controlled remotely. A team of 50 Microsoft investigators had analyzed the worms.
Writing worms is very easy with all the available source code. I have partly written one myself, that sends to all outlook contacts, in one weekend just for the heck of it. Obviously these fools can't anonymously proxy chain..
well, i wouldnt be too sure. as long as bill gates's buddies at microsoft keep putting out half coded software, there will always be work for us in the computer repair biz. ;-)
This isn't just something you do to get back at someone you don't like...these things usually effects MANY PEOPLE, including old people who are learning computuers and those who just know how to read their mail and such...
I think all virii writers and spyware makers (the kind that you have to use special programs just to get off, and can steal your identity, not the kind where you can opt out easily) SHOULD GET JAIL TIME. HEAVY FINES/JAIL TIME.
why not the firing squad? or maybe hanging. i say implement a no tollerence rule, complete with the death penalty, and it MUST be done in a cruel and unusual way, otherwise they will continue to do it.
Just give them to us network admins. We’re a pretty clever bunch, I’m sure we could find some very inventive ways to deal with these A-Holes! I spent the last week going through the company computers installing patches and making sure everything is secure. I did have better things to do. Yep, very inventive ways.....
Well... You see, things like these are done for many reasons.... Sometimes they are done to show the software writers that they can be done, and the flaws in their security needs to be fixed... Sometimes they are done as a joke... Sometimes they are done so that the person writing them can prove something to someone else, perhaps a fellow cracker or hacker. But many times people do this just because they can. And because its rather fun to watch the chaos and panick you create. Ive written a few, and just sent them to friends computers, just to watch my friends freak out. Its great. But im not stupid enough to release these things out into the open where I might could get in trouble for them.
fees and fines dont stop them from doing it again, we need corporal punishment, where every victim gets court alloted butt kicking time on the virus creator. i dont know, lets say 30minuts per each infected machine. rules are no killing, becaue the other victims need something left to beat up.
"wtf kind of thought process is that? So you would rather have murders and rapist run around so that cops can keep their jobs?" Silly comment. Of course cops & politicians would rather have murders and rapists run around so they can keep their job.
If they don't like a OS, then they should build on
make it better than the OS provided. Yea...I bet you they'll quickly refuse to and appericate how hard it is to do so.
Also, if they do build one, they'll have to convert ALL the software to their custom OS.
Nah, some people just like messing up things as a previous poster commented. I think if you do it to prove that there is a possible exploit, you should notify an OS like M$ (we all know these people don't do it to Apple or Linux...) instead of distributing it all across the world..
I'm just pissed about this, because twice this crap has gotten so bad that reformatting WAS the only answer. One time this stupid dialer/virii just COMPLETELY shut down my old win 98 computer.
So when it comes to this...I demand any kind of punishment possible. I would be severly pissed if these pieces of crap got any kind of probation...
i recing my comment about the death penalty, i like your idea much better. a half hour session to beat the creator of these damn things to every poor afflicted schmo who had to deal with them. i second the motion. and i bet one of the reasons they make them is boredom. could be wrong, but as the saying goes idle hands are the devils workplace. and maybe as a final punnishment to the jerks who make these things is to chop their hands off after the last beating so they can not do it again, kind of like the punnishment for theft in muslim run countries
BeOS was one amazing OS, very well run company, built on the strength of BSD (which is what Mac X is doing, personally I loathe Apple as a company but I wish them the best of luck). Unfortunately BeOS went under and got bought by PalmOs which seems to have left it on the shelf.
Luckily there is an ongoing project in which I am a member to rewrite the OS as an OpenSource.
Now M.$oft is logging everything I do, every call to RAM gets backed up to the "Virtual Memory" on the harddrive for no reason other then to facilitate forensics and spying, causing undue slowness and wasting my time. Everytime I run a multimedia application M.$oft gets informed and even asked for permission in some instances. M.$oft gets regular updates about me that a telemarketer can only wetdream about. Not to mention they purposely put holes in the OS again to facilitate spying and forensics. And all of this because the masses are too ignorant and lazy to use something different so I am stuck using M$ at work etc..
Some people choose to express their freedom in exposing bugs often "Implemented" by the guy that sold you the OS. I choose to express mine by participating in writing a better OS. both methods are very valid, and if you suffer few days per year for using that OS and are upset, then why are you not more upset the rest of the year when your privilege to privacy is stripped away from you and me.
I don't plan to 'upgrade' from Win2k until I absolutely have to, is that I disagree in principal with XP (and Vista is even worse), in that after you buy (that is, pay for and in theory, own) a copy of XP, you have to 'activate' it. Basicly, you have to ask permission to use something you bought, and you have to do that every time you change your computer config (ie upgrade). The stuff Vista will report to MS about you is just scary, I have no plans to use it, unless I have to. At worst I'll install XP or Vista(if it ever ships) on a non-networked computer and keep Win2k on another computer for net stuff.
