Erster!

Wow, I actually heard about a news story someone else before Fark. Neat.

Somewhere else, if you must be picky.

I bet he's going to be Sassy.

Burn 'im!

Give 'im the chair.

wooohoo! my poor baby computer got sick from that sasser-fras...

Give em' the chair!

Grab your ankles you 1337 hax0r

Bubba's gonna "get root" on your ass

Send the terrorist to Gitmo

System.out.println("nice move asshat")


// one year of hs Java class, only damn thing i remember.

String him up!
String him up!

/Sits back with a smug, satisfied look on my face knowing I have all service packs, firewall, latest McAffee, Mozilla Firefox...

The Chair? Naaah....
Cut a hole in his scrotum and run his leg through it.

/pain in the azz kids...

I'm torn between pushing for the death penalty for worm and virus writers for making my life hell or paying them to keep me employed.

I think it's funny that some hairy-palmed kid in high school can find a way to break a piece of software written by thousands of CompSci and Software Engineering nerds. What makes it funnier is how this happens almost every day.

Back in my day, the worst I could do was shoot out a few streetlights and take baseball bats to mailboxes. A few thousand dollars of damage tops. Now a kid with a disassembler, compiler, internet connection, a few 0wn3d proxy boxes and a case of Mountain Dew can do $billions of damage to the world's technology infrastructure.

(but I still think those $billions are "shock value" numbers pulled out of someone's ass, just like those drug busts that net 30 pounds of pot with a street value of $2 million.)

Anyway, what does this say about the future of cyberterrorism? (gawd I hate that word) ... It's hard to be confident in ordering stuff from Amazon.com when I know a kid who's barely through puberty can have my CC# on DALnet before I can finish typing "skr1pt k1dd13". It's a shame most people don't realize this simple fact.

Seems like its always some kid from highschool. When are we going to learn, kids in highschools should not be allowed access to computers. Or parents should turn on content filters that only allow porn sites so kids will not be able to find out how to use computers because they will be too busy jerkin' it.

"Home users were particularly hit hard, computer security experts say, because they generally lack the know-how to install patches and tend not to have the firewalls needed to keep Sasser from spreading to other computers via the Internet"

dumbasses, how much easier can Microsoft make it to install a patch? Little popup shows up on the screen saying "update is available" 4 clicks later your done. With 5 clicks you can set the thing to download critical updates automatically. It's not brain surgery people. Hmmm, maaybe not everyone should own a computer.

charge 10 bucks to kick this guy in the ass for a couple minutes. They'll make their money back, and hours of frustration and reinstalling windows.... service packs... needless to say, the backup of that friend's computer will not get lost again... will be relieved

Linux vs. Microsoft: Go!

In the grand scheme of things, spammers still rank higher on my sh*t list.

What i don't get is why virus/worm writers always do malicious things. It would be a thousand times cooler if the virus did something nice. Like the user gets infected and the virus reconfigures their Internet Settings for best speed depending on their connection type (like adjusting MTU size or RWIN size). Or it removes spyware from your computer and installs software firewalls. Or connects to windows update and updates their computers for them since they can't seem to do it themselves. Or automatically downloads porn for you.

Then you would see shock figures like "Virus causes 1 Billion dollars GAIN" and "Airline Flights on time because of virus." Now thats way cooler than the stupid viruses (viri) currently written.

Hang him by the neck until dead.

2004-05-08 10:04:07 AM ngue38t

dumbasses, how much easier can Microsoft make it to install a patch?...

It's a big problem in Asian countries with dialup. The virus is run and can infect computers as soon as they log on. However Microsoft's patches are huge and often take hours of 28kbps to download. Sasser often reboots the computer during the download. My sister is in India and got hit by it. Took me over 5 hours of online-chat to troubleshoot the hell outta the virus. Everytime her Norton removed it, the virus came back within minutes. And patches were taking seriously long to download.

There is no cure.

err... "The virus is small and can infect..."

erogenous_j

Or parents should turn on content filters that only allow porn sites so kids will not be able to find out how to use computers because they will be too busy jerkin' it.

Heh, that's an interesting take. I think it just might work.

It would be a thousand times cooler if the virus did something nice...

Wasn't there a 'good' virus sometime last year that attempted to combat one of the evil ones, but ended up causing all kinds of bandwidth problems as well?

bubbaprog

That's all I've been able to think about every time I've seen this story. Either that or the fact that he looked like a helicopter about to take off when he twirled his bat around.




I'm just glad to see that the streak of "Virus writers who live with their parents" remains intact.

shoot him, he's caused me some grief the last 2 weeks. But in all reality, that asshat didn't write it, he just took someone elses work and sent it out. The chair I tell you, the chair.

Chime -

I suggest burning a CD of patches and sending it International Priority mail. Only costs $5 and gets there in about 5 working days for the big cities.

2004-05-08 10:28:23 AM dimoximil

I suggest burning a CD of patches and sending it International Priority mail...

But that would have wasted 5 business days for her. Anyways we did fix the problems and install the patches. Took about 4-5 hours. My point is, the viruses are becoming so smart now that you don't even have to click on them to be infected. Just being online without the latest of the latest patches is enough to get you caught.

Viruses used to spread like AIDS before - direct contact. Now they're almost air-borne and just being present is enough to get you infected. If you were wondering what would happen if one of the human-killer viruses ever let loose, look at how these PC-viruses spread.

ten fark points to whomever gets this

I'm gonna say this while the Linux vs Windows argument is still newborn in this thread. Virus writers are like large recording companies. They produce stuff they thing will reach the greatest audience. You may like hardcore industrial speed metal but record companies think most people like Britney Spears. So they spend more time producing Britney clones and your are largely uneffect by them cause your into, um, whatever speed metal band. See if the majority of people like hardcore industrial speed metal, recording industries would spend more money on producing those kind of bands.

So if everyone in the world moved to Linux or whatever, would viruses (viri) cease to exist? No. Would there be fewer of them? Possibly. Every OS has its flaws. Most of these flaws don't manifest into anything bad on other OSes because not many people are trying to fix them and when a patch is available it is easier to propagate on such a few number of systems that have alternative OSes. Plus users of alternative OS are more inclined to find and install patches then standard windows users. But saying that switching to another OS will solve the problem is naive. Especially since most viruses and security threats are because of the user's incompetance. The real problem is the user (usually). Putting a typical user on Linux is not gonna stop them from opening viruses 'cleverly' disguised as Anna Kournikova nude pictures.

Heres a small incomplete list of vulnerabilities:
http://www.idefense.com/application/poi/display?type=vulnerabilities
Notice that Apache, BSD and Linux all have their vulnerablities. Their not invincible as some people would think.

(U know, comparing virus writers to the RIAA and virus to Britney Spears didnt seem as strange until i actually read it)

damn you, RX!

you posted it while I was still looking for it...same pic to boot!


/I suck

Man I remember the msblast virus.. It was so freaking easy to defeat.

*Zone alarm pops up*
Do you want msblast.exe to access the internet.
NO!
*computer didn't restart, or do jack ****!*

I think it's funny that some hairy-palmed kid in high school can find a way to break a piece of software written by thousands of CompSci and Software Engineering nerds. What makes it funnier is how this happens almost every day.

This isn't quite how it usually happens. Typically, someone finds a bug in windows, reports it, and MS makes a patch and says "You should all download this." Then a few weeks later, your "hairy-palmed kid" comes up with a way to exploit it. These virus writers rarely discover the flaws, they just exploit something already revealed.

Solved my virus problems years ago.

I bought a Mac.

Now, before you jump down my throat, I work for an Ivy League university, use a PC there and get to see all the computer problems (Mac and PC) first-hand. The help center is swamped with students who's PCs are infected and it takes hours to help each student fix their problems. These are not stupid people - the students or the people helping them. It has gotten so bad that when a student asks "What can I do to keep from getting a virus?" they've just taken to responding "Get a Mac" out of desperation.

No, you can't play the latest version of Splinter Cell. But then again, you can write your thesis without fear of infection.

anyone that got caught by da worm is a complete dumbass and should be forced to use a speak n spell from now on.

bubbaprog,

brilliant! I guess you get the 10 pts from Nuke too, since you answered his question nearly an hour before he posted it.

PimpJuice
You see what happens when you use a Windows OS on your server. There are soooooo many stupid IT people in the world. Linux people. SuSe. Redhat. No worms. It's really just that simple

Err, no. This is what happens when you don't have a firewall.

I amazes me that "large" business like the coastguard and major airlines don't have decent firewalls protecting their networks.

My home network (7 Windows machines) sits behind an off-the-shelf $100 firewall and nothing gets through. Hardware firewall, software firewall (zonealarm) on all machines to guard against spyware, a decent anti-virus and regular *automatic* updates and I don't even think about it any more.

/Need all the security I can get with 2 teenage girls on messenger + hotmail in the house...

2004-05-08 10:50:56 AM Nuke Laloosh

ten fark points to whomever gets this

Mets catcher Mackey Sasser

Exmond:

Man I remember the msblast virus.. It was so freaking easy to defeat.

*Zone alarm pops up*
Do you want msblast.exe to access the internet.
NO!
*computer didn't restart, or do jack ****!*

---

I don't "remember" any of them, am using a hardware
firewall (Microsoft is blatantly incompent to write
software and admits it in the licensing agreement),
and haven't updated since Nov 2002.

All of those... Nimbda, MS Blast, Sasser... they're all
pointless pings on the hardware firewall... they never
get through.

Hardware firewalls should be manditory connection equipment.

"No, you can't play the latest version of Splinter Cell. But then again, you can write your thesis without fear of infection."


Thesis? Who the hell wants to write a thesis? Farkin nerds!

So... let me get this straight:

The dumb high school kid who sent out this virus should be executed.

The company that made your operating system so vulnerable that a dumb high school kid could easily bring it down... they should be defended?

trying to figure out html...

but I still think those $billions are "shock value" numbers pulled out of someone's ass

Work in an IT department and you'll think differently.

GaryPDX

I've never had a virus until this little bastard caught me. I just built a new system, loaded the OS, logged online to down load the patches, not 10 minutes after I fired the comp up, I was infected. Nothing I could do about it.

Have never used AV software, until this lil bug came out, I was too smart to need it.

/the chair for this kid.

jorg

True, I'll grant you that.


- Don't use Outbreak Express or Internet Exploder
- Keep your patches up-to-date
- Don't click on random attachments, even if they're from that hot chick in accounting that says "ILOVEYOU"
- Don't download fritterware like screensavers-of-the-day, porn finders and download accelerators

By following these simple rules, I've never been infected by a worm/virus/trojan/etc. *knock on wood*

The closest call I had, I think it was Code Red? It exploited a previously-unknown hole in IIS, i.e. there was no patch. The only thing that saved me was that it assumed Windows was installed in C:\winnt, which wasn't the case on my machine.

That's scary, because it's only a matter of time before another worm-type exploit comes out for an unpatched vulnerability. Firewalling the NetBIOS/RPC/etc. ports from the outside world will do wonders to protect you from such nasties. But it won't stop you from clicking on "My Wife Naked.jpg .exe"