This is a security alert to users of Windows 2000 and some early versions of Microsoft XP (I suppose Windows XP without SP1 & SP2 installed). A new worm has been found on Tuesday, August 16, 2005, infected computer systems using Microsoft operating systems (OS). The worm shut down computers in the United States, Germany and Asia, even big companies like CNN, ABC and The New York Times were affected.

Quoted:
Lysa Myers, a virus researcher for the computer security firm McAfee, Inc., said the worm exploits a vulnerability in Microsoft’s plug-and-play service. “How it’s spreading is it’s looking for machines that are unpatched and running itself,” she said.

Symptoms of infection of this nasty worm include the repeated shutdown and rebooting of a computer, similar to the well known Blaster‘s.
Continue Reading »
New Worm Shuts Down PC

Thanks to FeiCiPet for reminding me the first virus for Windows Vista is not actually the first. :p

Why do I say so? It’s actually the new command shell, codenamed Monad, which got exploited by the virus writer will not be part of the next Windows Vista release, Microsoft announced it last Friday, Aug 5, 2005.

Quoted:
“Monad will not be included in the final version of Windows Vista. So these potential viruses do not affect Windows Vista.” Said Stephen Toulouse, a program manager in Microsoft’s security group.

Continue Reading »
Not Really The First Virus For Windows Vista

An Austrian hacker, who named “Second Part To Hell“, become the first virus writer by writing what are thought to be the first known viruses for Microsoft’s Windows Vista operating system (OS), according to Mikko Hypponen, chief research officer at F-Secure.

Quoted:
The viruses take advantage of a new command shell, codenamed Monad, that was included in the Windows Vista beta code. They were published on a virus-writing tutorial written for an underground hacker group calling itself the Ready Ranger Liberation Front, and take advantage of security vulnerabilities in the new command shell.

This command shell would be similar to what Linux OS is using, allows users to use powerful text-based commands, it is much like Windows’ predecessor, DOS too. The command shell is so powerful and allows users to make as huge and complex scripts as users do in Linux’s BASH (Bourne Again Shell).
Continue Reading »
First Virus For Windows Vista

As Firefox supporters, we always argue that Firefox is a better and more secure browser over Internet Explorer. More secure in the sense of less security flaws, I suppose. Somehow this argument is not right based on statistical data provided by a security advisory service, Secunia, at least for this year, 2005.

Quoted:
The report in the UK-based IT trade publication states: “There have now been more flaws in the Firefox browser this year than in Microsoft’s Internet Explorer.”

Secunia advisories affecting Mozilla Firefox 1.x on a month-by-month basis.

Continue Reading »
More Attack On Firefox Than IE This Year

Just days after the latest release of Firefox 1.0.5, Mozilla Foundation is going to release Firefox 1.0.6 as early as next week. This is due to the API changes in 1.0.5 unintentionally broke some extensions, which have caused some incompatibility between the browser and web-based applications. That’s why some of your old extensions cannot be used in the new Firefox 1.0.5. A test builds of Firefox 1.0.6 has already been released for developers to test.

Quoted:
“It’s a very small percentage of Firefox users that are affected by this directly, but there is a growing number of people building applications, content and extensions that rely on the [browser] platform,” Mozilla’s director of engineering, Chris Hofmann said.

Continue Reading »
Firefox 1.0.6 Is Coming Our Way Next Week

July 7 London terrorist attacks has been the focus for the past 1 week, therefore virus writers and scammers are taking advantage of this incident to launch a few viruses and scams in the cyberspace.

A Windows virus arrives in an e-mail message with “TERROR HITS LONDON” in the subject line has been created that claims to link to amateur video footage of the aftermath of one of the bombs on the London Underground, the BBC reported Monday, July 11, 2005. The message tells those receiving it to click on the attached file named “London terror moovie.avi” to see amateur video footage shot in the London Underground immediately after one of the bombs went off. The actual file name is hidden after a long series of blank spaces of the attached file.
Continue Reading »
Beware Of London Bombing Virus & Scam