Posted on 08/15/2005 7:23:48 AM PDT by HAL9000
SINGAPORE (Reuters) - A new Internet virus has been detected that can infect Microsoft's Windows platforms faster than previous computer worms, said an anti-virus computer software maker.The ZOTOB virus appeared shortly after the world's largest software maker warned of three newly found "critical" security flaws in its software, including one that could allow attackers to take complete control of a computer.
The latest worm exploits security holes in Microsoft's Windows 95, 98, ME, NE, 2000 and XP platforms and can give computer attackers remote access to affected systems, said Trend Micro Inc..
"Hundreds of infection reports were sighted in the United States and Germany," Tokyo-based Trend Micro said in a statement released late last week.
"Since most users may not be aware of this newly announced security hole so as to install the necessary patch during last weekend, we can foresee more infections from WORM_ZOTOB," it said.
The latest virus drops a copy of itself into the Windows system folder as BOTZOR.EXE and modifies the system's host file in the infected user's computer to prevent the user getting online assistance from antivirus web sites, Trend Micro added.
It can also connect to a specific Internet relay chat server and give hackers remote control over affected systems, which can be used to infect other unpatched machines in a network and slow down the network performance.
Last Tuesday, Microsoft issued patches to fix its security flaws as part of its monthly security bulletin. The problems affect the Windows operating system and Microsoft's Internet Explorer Web browser.
Microsoft has warned that an attacker could exploit a vulnerability in its Internet Explorer Web browser and lure users to malicious Web pages, and could run a software code on the user's PC giving the attacker control of the affected computer.
Computer users should update their anti-virus pattern files and apply the latest Microsoft patches to protect their computer systems, Trend Micro said.
More than 90 percent of the world's PCs run on the Windows operating system and Microsoft has been working to improve the security and reliability of its software.
BTTT
Actually, I'm glad I have a firewall & anti-virus on all my PC's. Hackers and virus creators should be hung without trial, in my opinion.
Why is the SYSTEM folder writeable by any crap that comes along?
Why us the SYSTEM's host file writeable by any crap that comes along?
Oh that's right - this is Microsoft - people will buy it anyway...
My zonealarm stopped an e-mail virus yesterday morning.
I had a pop up flash ad from DRUDGE yesterday try to download qoolaid onto my computer. It set up the .exe download without me even asking it too. All I would have had to do was hit 'yes' and i would have been in a world of hurt. I notified Drudge. Also I disabled popup flash plugins.
I could use a bit of Freeper assistance. Considering this will be one of the regularly scheduled MS vs. Linux Vs. Mac threads, I'd though I'd ask it here.
I'm looking to install linux on a amd64 pc. I'm looking at gentoo-amd64 right now. If any freeper uses a 64bit linux setup, could you tell me which linux build you use. At this point I just want to find possible kernels and OS's I don't know about yet. I'm slowly working my way through Distrowatch, this is a steep learning curve. Probably won't tackle the install until next weekend.
I used to use Zone Alarm for years on my PC's. I really liked it. I switched to Norton but when my subscription runs out I may use Zone Alarm again.
I am still running a 32-bit machine, so I haven't looked at 64-bit distros yet. However, you may also try Linux ISO. Part of their search engine is you can look for distros based on a particular architecture.
FreeBSD, Gentoo, and Sorceror seem to be the only three geared especially toward the AMD64 platform.
Logged In Before The ZOTOB
HAHAHA ... good one!
Ahh a post about a MS virus is anti-ms, and a post and bashing of a Linux problem is a reaction to anti-ms... must be nice to always be right..
I dont use 64bit but I heard Fedoras works pretty good..
Are you kidding? I'm an "MS-Drone" and married, I haven't been right once in the last 20 years!! =)
If Microsoft didn't require me to use Internet Explorer to access their site I wouldn't be as susceptible to virus attack. That's the only time I use IE.
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