SCO Offers Reward for Arrest and Conviction of Mydoom Virus Author

SCO press release ^ | January 27, 2004 | Darl McBride

[HAL9000]

SCO Offers Reward for Arrest and Conviction of Mydoom Virus Author

SCO Offers Monetary Reward for Arrest and Conviction of Perpetrator of Damaging Mydoom Virus

LINDON, Utah, Jan. 27 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- The SCO Group, Inc. , the owner of the UNIX® operating system and a leading provider of UNIX-based solutions, today confirmed that it is experiencing a distributed Denial-of-Service attack. SCO announced that it is offering a reward of up to a total of $250,000 for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the individual or individuals responsible for creating the Mydoom virus.

"During the past ten months SCO has been the target of several DDOS attacks," said Darl McBride, president and CEO, The SCO Group, Inc. "This one is different and much more troubling, since it harms not just our company, but also damages the systems and productivity of a large number of other companies and organizations around the world. The perpetrator of this virus is attacking SCO, but hurting many others at the same time. We do not know the origins or reasons for this attack, although we have our suspicions. This is criminal activity and it must be stopped. To this end, SCO is offering a total of $250,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of those responsible for this crime."

SCO is also working with U.S. law enforcement authorities including the U.S. Secret Service and Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to determine the identity of the individual(s) involved. Anyone with this information may contact their local FBI office.

The Mydoom worm, also known as Novarg, is a mass-mailing worm that arrives as an attachment with the file extension .bat, .cmd, .exe, .pif, .scr, or .zip. When a user opens the attachment their computer becomes infected and uses their computer with the intention of connecting to the www.sco.com Web site on February 1, 2004. Network security firms including Network Associates and Symantec have already issued software updates to combat this particular worm.

[kingu]

Even if you got the worm it would be stopped by ZoneAlarm, or any competent firewall. It could try to attack SCO, but it wouldn't be allowed access to the internet.

Wow, that's some change to ZoneAlarm; I'm highly impressed. I didn't know that it scanned incoming and outgoing e-mails.

I own a few domains, so I'm getting pounded by this sucker - it chooses 'common' first names and then a random domain out of the addressbook, and it mails out to spread. The second form of spreading is that when it sends itself out, it chooses a random common first name and another domain to be the sender. Smart little trick there - if the server bounces the e-mail because that user doesn't exist, it gets a second chance to attack someone.

Right now, they're flying by the hundreds; hopefully the larger ISPs will nail down their side of it so that us little guys won't get knocked into the stone age.

[Golden Eagle]

I hope the perpetrator responsible for this attack is arrested and convicted...

Glad to hear it. And this is the perfect chance for Linux supporters to prove that other Linux users weren't behind this, and let SCO pay them for it as well, although I seriously doubt that is what will ultimately happen.

[Great Dane]

We just bought a Norton 2004, it has a built-in error which does not allow you to enable Auto Protect, they claim to have fixed it, i have twice tried to update, with zero result, is about to pull my hair out.

[Great Dane]

It's happening to millions of innocent computer users.......so glad that makes you happy.

I am one of them, my e-mail is completely shut down.

[OldFriend]

Can you use the webmail?

Had a virus last year and was frantic until I got it resolved. OF course, knowing nothing about the computer I had to call a technician and it cost a few hundred dollars to get it fixed..........

I have no use at all for hackers and virus senders......may they all rot in hell!

[Great Dane]

Had a virus last year and was frantic until I got it resolved. OF course, knowing nothing about the computer I had to call a technician and it cost a few hundred dollars to get it fixed..........

I am in the same boat, but usually I can follow the instructions given, not this time.

We are with cable, they are using Outlook Express, I hear Outlook has a reputation for freezing, when someone sneezes.

I am too tired to do anything more tonight, have been working on it all day.. and part of yesterday.

[OldFriend]

Good luck. Hope it works out tomorrow.