Experts anxious over possible Web attack

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(CNN) -- Seeing a rise in hacker activity that could be a prelude to a broad Internet attack, security experts Thursday urged computer users to protect their machines by installing a free patch offered by Microsoft.

Potential For Significant Impact On...erability In Microsoft Operating Systems

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We implore the private sector -- both business and home users -- to visit the Microsoft Web site and install the patches and mitigations necessary to prevent this from creating a negative effect on the Internet as a whole.
-- FBI spokesman Bill Murray

[This message has been edited by Bill Addiss (edited 07-31-2003).]

Well....I implore the public and private sector to ditch Microsoft and go with something that is less prone to worms, viruses and takeovers.

Yup. Linux.

(Hoooo boy...this is gonna start a flame war. [Linked Image]

)

No argument from me Sven. [Linked Image]

Unix (and its derivatives) is a far superior operating system to Win-Doze.

Homeboy security now employs full time surfers to monitor the 'net.

this has it Pro's and Con's

ask any librarian

This is not a good thought!.
The thought of the whole Internet being brought down by a few sick minds, is mind-blowing, although a very real possibility.
I personally hope it NEVER happens. [Linked Image]

Trumpy,

Did you get your Updates?
In XP there should be a little icon (maybe flashing?) in the lower right corner of the desktop on the toolbar that notifies you that Updates are available. You can click on details and review what's available and choose what you'd like to install by checking/unchecking box.

Bill

Yeah Bill,
I've got them, mate!. [Linked Image]

But, other side of the coin, I've got viruses through Updates being sent to my system.
I scan everything with Norton AntiVirus, if it doesn't pass muster, it gets sent to the Quarantine bin. [Linked Image]

So you won't be laughing at me for picking up that old CP/M system a couple of months ago, then? [Linked Image]

Paul,

No, they make EXCELLENT Paper weights!!

[Linked Image]

Bill

The internet (then the Arpanet) was specifically designed to be immune to damage from attacks against individual servers, switching nodes, etc. And not just network attacks, but little things like nuclear war...

I have to think that this is yet another scare story being used to:

>Further demonize "hackers".

>Provide a justification for government internet surveillance in the name of "Homeland Security".

>Keep the citizenry "on edge" about the latest "terrorist threat of the week", so they dont notice the Bill of Rights being shredded and the economy in the toilet.

>Funnel more money/business to Micro$oft, whose lousy products are behind most of the vulnerabilities in the first place!

It is becomming more and more obvious that much of the terrorism hysteria is being used to serve an agenda OTHER THAN providing "homeland security". Keep the population scared out of their wits, and they will BEG to have their rights taken away.

I don't know how much of a threat this really is, but I see results of antisocial behavior via the net every day. Dozens of virus-laden emails and mountains of SPAM every day. Many of the recent slow-downs and unavailability of ECN for several hours at a time have been the result of direct attacks against our servers by persons and computers unknown, from many different countries.

I'd like to thank a member here for their help in identifying what was going on. Bjarney sent me some info on a few things that started us looking into things a little deeper and we found out that some access delays were not normal.

I don't think the threat here is destruction of the physical connections. But computers being able to control other computers, even increasing levels of Spam being sent back and forth can really clog things up.

Bill

[This message has been edited by Bill Addiss (edited 08-02-2003).]

bad monkey NJwirenut....
how else are they going to justify 3.8% of the GNP?
run along now and duct tape your hard drive into a nice airtight bubble, and place your bets against the 'house' here

[This message has been edited by sparky (edited 08-03-2003).]

Hmmm...... Maybe I'm reading more into things than I should, but from comments (both here on ECN and in other forums) I'm detecting a lot of distrust over what the new DHS is actually trying to do. I notice that the INS has now gone as well, renamed to the Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services, now also under the auspices of Homeland Security too.

The "virus by e-mail" problem is one which should never have happened. As has been stated above, it's the software with little-to-zero security which allows executable stuff to be run from e-mail in the first place. There's no reason for that.

I didn't mean this to seem like a "Doom and Gloom" type of warning, or to represent or spur anything Political in any way. I just wanted to point out something I read regarding yet another flaw in the Operating Systems many of us use.

Please take this as a reminder to keep your systems updated and your virus protection current.

Bill

[This message has been edited by Bill Addiss (edited 08-03-2003).]

This particular hole is rather extreme and leaves the computer completely at the hands of the hacker. The fear is not hackers, but an e-mail virus or similar. It will be here soon, and no doubt cause massive problems.

I've installed the hotfix. I better get the other people in the office to do the same.

I thought Unix was good until I started using it. In reality it is difficult to use and less stable than Windows. Sure, it was better than DOS, Win 3.11 or Win 95. But I run Win 2000, which is rock steady. It has never crashed, although my CAD software goes down every ten or fifteen minutes. The Unix workstations crashed several times a day. But unix is great for some things, like the firewall. It has been up for months without any problem what so ever. And it runs from a floppy disk! The last Windows version to do that was 3.1

It is disgusting that so many resources in datacomm have to be dedicated to limit the effects of malicious code.

What I find disgusting is the large number of antisocial people willing to write malicious code and the even larger number of people willing to use that code.

The 'Net has never been the same since the malcontents made their presence felt.

MacWire

Some updated info on this:

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AN internet-borne infection incapacitated tens of thousands of computers today, snarling company networks and frustrating home users as it spread across the globe.

Security officials said the virus-like worm, dubbed "LovSan", was part of a coordinated electronic attack that exploited one of the most serious flaws yet discovered in Microsoft Corp's Windows operating systems.
....
In Sweden, internet provider TeliaSonera said about 20,000 of its customers were affected after the infection clogged 40 servers that handled internet traffic.
....
Computers infected by LovSan were programmed to automatically launch an attack Saturday on windowsupdate.com, a web site Microsoft uses to avail customers of software patches that can prevent such infections.

above from >> Virus hits Asia, Europe networks

Virus Infection Spreads in Asia, Europe (ABC News)

Get the Patch if you haven't gotten it already.

Bill

more:

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Blaster is fairly unusual in that it does not spread specifically by e-mail. It can travel through a normal Internet connection.
..
Blaster's author has programmed the worm to knock the Microsoft site offline August 16, the experts said.
..]
Once Blaster infects a computer it scans the Internet for other vulnerable machines to attack. In some cases the worm causes the computer to crash, but does not infect it.

"It's dangerous from the perspective that it can consume a lot of bandwidth," said Russ Cooper of TruSecure. "Every compromised machine is constantly attacking."

In January, a worm known as Slammer, which exploited a hole in Microsoft SQL database software, brought automatic teller machines in the United States to a standstill, paralyzed corporate networks worldwide and nearly shut down Web access to South Korea.

from >> New Worm Mocks 'Billy' Gates

Bill,

This worm made the local news last night. I verified that my Virus List included the name used in the newscast and went to bed.

It is also known as MBlaster, W32/Lovsan.worm, MSBlast, W32.blaster.worm, Win32.posa.worm, Win32.poza.worm

This morning I checked Microsoft Update to verify that the operating system patch was in place in my computer, and, after a loooonngg wait, got a "Server Too Busy". First time I've seen that at MSUpdate! There's a lot of activity, apparently, surrounding this issue.

The newscast included solutions from The Geek Squad . These guys do house calls in black & white VWs (queue the theme music to "Ghostbusters") and are a highly respected local phenomena that is expanding to a few other locations.

This link (above) is to a page on their site that explains how to clean up after an infestation.

Thanks Al,

This thing seems to be picking up more names every day! I'm trying to keep this thread up near the top so that more people will see it.

I just watched GhostBuster the other day, it's a classic! [Linked Image]

Here's more from CNN today:

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About 188,000 individual computers were infected worldwide as of Tuesday evening, said Alfred Huger, senior director of engineering for security response at Symantec, maker of the popular Norton AntiVirus program.

"Those infected computers are now scanning other machines around the world," Huger said.

This worm, however, is slower than others because its code was poorly written, he said.

"We're seeing a 35 to 40 percent decrease in new activity, but we think this is more due to the fact that it's poorly written. We don't believe it's coming close to exhausting its targets," Huger said.

Computer security experts fear other hackers will improve upon the current worm's code, unleashing an even more disruptive worm.
...
Dubbed "LoveSAN" or "MSBlaster," the worm does not use e-mail to send itself. Rather it is considered self-propagating, meaning that it independently searches for unprotected computers to infect.
...
Some tech analysts worry, however, that if "MSBlaster" is able to find enough vulnerable computers, its spread could slow the performance of the Internet by bogging it down.

above from CNN Report >> Internet worm spreading rapidly

Bill

[This message has been edited by Bill Addiss (edited 08-13-2003).]