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.

[HAL9000]

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

[Izzy Dunne]

a reward of up to a total of $250,000

Payable by 400 licenses for your Linux copy, no doubt.

[Servant of the 9]

This is what happens when you file a malicious lawsuit against IBM and the entire LINUX community.

This is wrong, but it couldn't happen to a more deserving bunch of creeps.

So9

[TruthShallSetYouFree]

If these virus-makers were given jail time concomitant with the economic damage that they cause, they would all get life. I'm all for that, unless we could give them the death penalty. Let them run an infected computer, and the first time the Blue Screen of Death shows up, drop the cyanide capsule.

[js1138]

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.

[Right Wing Professor]

If these virus-makers were given jail time concomitant with the economic damage that they cause, they would all get life

In most cases, yes. In the present case, I'm not sure a DDOS attack on SCO would cause any economic damage, given that the company's only business plan seems to be to try to extract fraudulent license fees from Linux users.

[Prime Choice]

If these virus-makers were given jail time concomitant with the economic damage that they cause, they would all get life. I'm all for that, unless we could give them the death penalty.

What a strange world we live in. Taliban John gets only 20 years for taking up arms against his country, but kids who make a monkey out of a tech business should get the death penalty? Hmmmm.

[Pylot]

How interesting to hear from SCO that they are experiencing and are presumably the target of DDOS attacks.

Are we witness to a form of virtual anarchy???

[SirAllen]

"If these virus-makers were given jail time concomitant with the economic damage that they cause, they would all get life"

They haven't caused any economic harm by attacking SCO. Now, if they attacked the 50,000 lawyers that SCO is using to sue the entire world they might have caused some economic harm, albiet only to the lawyers.

[theDentist]

... and receives a very swift kick in the jewels.

[TruthShallSetYouFree]

This virus also attacks PC's.

[TruthShallSetYouFree]

What a strange world we live in. Taliban John gets only 20 years for taking up arms against his country, but kids who make a monkey out of a tech business should get the death penalty? Hmmmm.

I wasn't the judge who sentenced a traitor to 20 years. Were it my choice, he'd be a prime candidate for a necktie party.

As for making a monkey out of a tech busines:

a) This virus also attacks PC's. link.

b) Economic damage done by viruses is a bit more serious than that.

[FourPeas]

confirmed that it is experiencing a distributed Denial-of-Service attack

But wait! The DDoS from MyDoom wasn't supposed to start until February 1st. How can they be experiencing it now?

[dr_who_2]

This calls for a Bwahahahaha.

[OldFriend]

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

[Robert_Paulson2]

REMOVAL TOOL IS NOW ONLINE FOR FREE AT NORTON,INDIRECT LINK (READ BEFORE YOU RUN IT)

link here

REMOVAL TOOL IS NOW ONLINE FOR FREE AT NORTON:

link to download fix from norton frreeeee

YOU SHOULD PROBABLY DOWNLOAD AND RUN... IF YOU HAVE MICROSOFT

[OldFriend]

Thanks, my tech person assured me that PCCillin has protected against this.....further I have closed the preview window on the email and NEVER EVER open attachments.

Earthlink caught something in their spam protector that I have. It never made it to my desktop.

[Prime Choice]

Economic damage done by viruses is a bit more serious than that.

Can't say I buy that claim. Take a look at any press on "losses" from viruses, trojans and worms. Then compare those figures with the quarterly and annual statements to stockholders of those businesses. Isn't it funny how those "losses" are mysteriously absent?

So one of two groups are being lied to: the public, or the SEC. Were I running a business and had to lie to one of them, it sure as heck wouldn't be the SEC...

[vetvetdoug]

I had my first experience with some outfit called Spyware from Georgia that hijacked my computer and put porno and other things I did not want was this weekend. I had to take my computer to a service dealer that had to run a new program on it to rid me of this plague. If I could find the 'holes that did this I would deal them some pain. This is uncalled for and costs me money because of their greed.

I got this POS on my computer just because I wanted to download the lyrics of a song that I wished to play. If it cost me $25 here in Ms, there is no telling how much they cost some poor smuck that lives in areas of the country where the cost of living is high.

Johnny Walker needed a necktie along with Jane Fonda. I am just a routine computer user that doesn't spend 24/7 with a computer and have no idea to rid this of these uninvited intrusions.

[snopercod]

My ISP runs all our E-mail through "Postini", which filters out all known viruses, and 99% of spam.

It seems to work perfectly. Once a week I get a list of quarantined E-mails to review, and they are almost always something I don'e want.

Why doesn't everybody use Postini?