NEWS Reports are pouring in of UK companies waking up to a barrage of emails resulting from the Netsky variant P hitting what one antivirus expert has described as its "peak".
The worm appeared earlier in the week to little fanfare but businesses across the UK have been logging on today to struggling mail servers, vast numbers of mail delivery failure notifications, interception alerts or instances of the virus itself - all relating to the spread of Netsky.P.
Simon Perry, divisional vice president of security strategy at Computer Associates, said: "Netsky.P is definitely peaking. There has been an extremely high level of infection reports out there and a very high propensity of spread."
For many users the influx of mail delivery failure notifications is the most problematic aspect of any virus outbreak.
Netsky has added to the growing list of viruses which reach increasingly high numbers of variants. There was a time when a B. or C. variant was the most users would see, but the later end of the alphabet is increasingly getting an airing.
And Perry warned that there may yet be several more Netsky variants to come after P.
"No other new variants have been seen thus far," said Perry. "But who knows, we may yet wrap through the alphabet on this one within a few weeks."
Comments
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1. Adrian Jones
Companies and users only have themselves to blame - failure to educate users on the danger of opening erroneous mail with attachments that have contributed to the spread of viruses is an indication of a whole in security policies. You cannot lay the blame solely on holes in programs, Virus scanners not updated or anything else when a basic security issue of deleting unwanted or unknown mail with attachments is not adhered to.
2. Mark Spurgeon
I totally agree with Adrian, being in charge of IT one of my first tasks is to educate my staff as they are also a main line of defence, what they learn from me I hope they apply to their home environment and pass on to their family and friends. I don’t understand why people think its NOT their problem, its the users that are to blame most of the time, opening that oh so tempting attachment.
3. Sarah McCartney
That's a bit like saying pedestrians are responsible for getting run over on zebra crossings because they should be aware that some drivers may not stop for them.
People who write viruses are responsible for viruses.
The rest of us are forced to spend tiem and money on our defenses and some people are behind with this. It's not their 'fault' but it has now become their responsibility. Until they realise this, the rest of us are inconvenienced. The question is, how can the industry get them to take notice, shell out and do something?
4. anonymous
Adrian Jones:::
Companies and individuals are not to blame. It is the sad individuals who are the virus writers who are to blame. If they did not sit in their little rooms, living their sad existence, then the likes of Norton and Mcafee would not make so much money.
But, it is human nature to disrupt anything that works. Because the saddos are out there, wreaking as much damage as possible, then I agree with you, users and companies need to be aware to these neanderthals, and take appropriate measures. But they are not to blame for the virus being in existence.
5. Paul Clark
Why can't the ISP's who run the mail servers sort this problem out.
It would seem to me that ANY e-mail infected with a virus should be destroyed, as most users do not wish to receive an infected mail it is better to receive none at all.
If they were killed by the ISP's a lot of this problem would dissapear overnight.
6. anonymous
Note that Netsky.P does *not* rely on the user opening an attachment. It's an HTML-based email that simply requires the user to click a link. It takes advantage of an Internet Explorer vulnerability (MS01-020) dating back to *March 2001*. It only affects older versions of IE (5.01 / 5.5). So...why are all of those companies running unpatched, outdated software? Had the systems been patched, the virus could not execute.
7. Andy Bowles
Viruses will continue to boom as technology moves forward. Virus writers are al ready getting smarter, but as long as companies and users stay on top of Network security there doesn't have to be any pain.
8. anonymous
Personally I would get the virus writer and put him in a room with somebody who has just lost days/weeks/months of work due to these terrorists. The last person in my company who deliberatly sent out a virus got a severe beating (actual physical violence) at the hands of the IT department before he got sacked
9. Ript
Companies and users only have themselves to blame
We have over 2000 users and a shrinking budget. You mean to tell me its thier fault email is so in-secure?
What about the bandwidth used by this activity? Our fault too? Even if No one opens anything, the net is crawling lately mostly due to viral trafic on our t1. Its a total joke that a system so large can be exploited this way.