Good morning, there's another worm ...

Good morning, there\'s another worm ...

Another worm working only on Microsoft software is on the scene. It is a variant of one we've seen before, and once again is causing general slowdowns in various parts of the 'Net.

Here's a Yahoo! aticle about it datelined today: Internet SPAM Worm

This is another one that affects not only those running Microsoft stuff and the ostensible targets of the attacks, but all the rest of us, too, by taking up tremendous chunks of bandwidth. Things like this are not only annoying, but also very expensive. Too bad there's no practical fix for most people.

Re: Good morning, there\'s another worm ...

Honestly /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/rolleyes.gif

Just when I thought spammers couldn`t sink any lower. Quick, someone come up with a new ultra-obscene insult, because I`ve run out of existing words to describe how I feel about them.

/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/icon23.gif

Re: Good morning, there\'s another worm ...

There's a lot of "big money" in SPAM - not in selling ***** enlargers or porn or mortgages or whatever so much as in selling SPAMming services to those idiots.

Think about it, it really is big business, and here's a good example of two guys who learned really well while exec's at Microsoft how to play both sides of the street: Make money selling SPAM services and also in selling anti-SPAM services ... Can't loose. The better the first side (SPAM) does, the better the other side of their business does. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Big Business SPAM Hucksters.

Re: Good morning, there\'s another worm ...

That`s messed up!

-

Spammers are no better than bank robbers, muggers and blackmailers to me. There`s big money to be made there too!

/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/rolleyes.gif

Re: Good morning, there\'s another worm ...

SpamCop is so heavily entrenched in the antispam operation, that even though they do the obvious scrupulous activities of blocking the domains of other antispam operations, attempts to spread the word falls on deaf ears. There are too many that think because they have provided a service that cut down on their own spam, they couldn't be that corrupt. IronPort is a known spammers service. SpamCop is a known "antispam" service. Isn't that ironic that they are the same operation. It kind of reminds you of the old insurance rackets of the old time gangsters.

Re: Good morning, there\'s another worm ...

And I was about to reset my router because of the slow connection... /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/icon23.gif

Re: Good morning, there\'s another worm ...

Q1 - Is this why I was having a lot of difficulty last night and some difficulty tonight getting decent connectivity/navigation? CallWave went south, Got partial CPF pages, sometimes Google wouldn't come up.

Q2 - There is no detection or fix for machines that might have it?

Q3 - Is a weak, yet possible solution for the XP/Enterprise "come get me" environment at work to write rules to delete incoming e-mail mails containing certain text in the subject line and body on all the machines? I say it's a "come get me" environment because not only is it MS but by structure we get our e-mail via a parent organization straight into the network...I know...I know...not my call.

Chris M. -

I'm not advocating violence. Do you see the possibility that in the future we will see a news headline discribing the deaths of a spammer or two at the hands of someone that just snaps?

You requested an obscene insult and I'm just not good at those. To me, spammers have much less value than the aroma that comes from the moisture beneath sun-baked cow patties that feeds various fungi.

Re: Good morning, there\'s another worm ...

I just quit working for one of those idiots that thinks the more times you put something in front of somebodies face the more chance they will buy it. He thinks he knows marketing and his marketing skills suck. He probably doesn't know anything about demagraphics if he even knows what the word means. I may not be able to spell it but I do know what it means. These type of people are beyond my reasoning and just tend to **** me off!

Re: Good morning, there\'s another worm ...

Bill Gates beats back bugs

"According to Mi2g, viruses and other malicious attacks against Microsoft systems in August and September alone caused $64.5 billion (U.S.) worth of damages worldwide, including lost productivity, the cost of upgrading software and hardware to prevent future outbreaks and recovery costs."

Re: Good morning, there\'s another worm ...

Good article you linked to, Photonboy. I was especially intrigued by the following from it:

There is also a renewed push in some circles for legislation that will hold software makers liable for product flaws. A proposed class-action lawsuit filed this fall in California argues the point. Adam Putnam, the Republican chairman of the U.S. House of Representatives subcommittee on information technology, has hinted Congress will be under pressure to consider software liability rules the next time a malicious virus causes cyber-gridlock.

"There's no reason to treat software any differently from other products," writes Schneier. "Today, Firestone can produce a tire with a single systemic flaw and they're liable, but Microsoft can produce an operating system with multiple systemic flaws discovered per week and not be liable. This makes no sense, and it's the primary reason security is so bad today."

I also believe that any company with a product that pulls in billions of dollars a year with over 80% profit margin is either 1) charging way too much for their product, or 2) not putting enough of their money back into R&D to improve its glaring errors.

There is no excuse for a product this poor from a company with that kind of funds available to fix it. All it is is greed and an irrational quest for power.

That $64,500,000,000 in damages in just two months, due to worms and viruses that successfully used security holes in Microsoft products, was lost not just by the people using those Microsoft products. We ALL lost out, even that guy in Seattle with the Atari ...

I'd better be quiet before I get told I'm being unfair. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/icon6.gif

Re: Good morning, there\'s another worm ...

You are being unfair. You are focusing on the greater view in such a way as to facilitate convention on how society and law should demand natural performance from companies that make gobs of money.

Where I think you should focus on my little questions. I've come to rely on You, JamesS, Chris M. and others for support, analysis and solutions. I suppose trying to offer reasonable guidance on how to fix the world community of computer users is a good thing but I need some help and it is all about me. Isn't it? /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/frown.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/blush.gif

Re: Good morning, there\'s another worm ...

Well, Icebreak, I'll give it a shot ... /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Q1 - I've had reports of the same sorts of things and murmers of the same sorts of questions from assorted independent users in various parts of the world, but no answers.

My link to the 'Net is running fairly consistently at 2.4-2.6mB/S, my 1.25GHz system is running very smoothly, and other than two to three anonymous port scans per hour running into my firewall, everything is fairly quiet.

Still, I'm getting large slowdowns trying to access assorted sites in Asia, Europe, and the US - pauses of several seconds at a time with zero information flow, repeatedly. (And strangely, lots of DNS problems where the four DNS servers from two different services are all inaccessible for extended times.)

Q2 - Only a negative detection IMHO. I can determine with quite good reliability which machines do NOT have the latest MS disease: Those not running MS software.

Q3 - A "learning filter" in series with a filter using some fixed rules is probably the best bet. I have multiple layers of filtering that works fairly well for me: First, a filter that is set to delete known viruses based on their signatures, second a rules filter that filters by originator, addressee, and subject, and third, a filter that learns from my treatment of things passed by the other two filters.

At this point, with 12 email addresses, 5 of them published on-line for up to eight years, I get an average of 3-5 SPAM type e-mails per day that I need to handle in some way.

They aren't really 'little questions' just unanswerable with any reliabilityby those who know what they are doing, and ESPECIALLY unanswerable by someone like me who has never, even once, used an MS Windows system /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/frown.gif

Re: Good morning, there\'s another worm ...

I have gotten away from using MS Windows for my email, even with mozilla messenger. I use mozilla messenger in mandrake linux to handle my email. I also use mandrake for most of my surfing and chatting. This reduces the chance of my system being Infested, to near Zero.

Re: Good morning, there\'s another worm ...

I don't use the Microsoft mail prog, but the Bat, and so far I have had zero! spam . /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Re: Good morning, there\'s another worm ...

Meh. I use XP and Firebird, and i haven't been .... uhh *touches wood*

Re: Good morning, there\'s another worm ...

Tomas -

* In Gomer Pyle,s voice * Thank you, Thank you, Thank you.

Enlightening answers. I've been experimenting with filters today trying to create a "learning filter". I haven't figured it out yet but I think I see what you mean. Let me work on this a little more. I would like to figure it out myself rather than hollaring for a solution on a platter.

Others -

This whole SpamCop thing is ridiculous.

I wonder if the FTC forced the bank's to investigate using the $10,000.00 rule, they could make a cases. More importantly the banks would figure out it's cheaper to not do business with Spammers than to do the investigations. They could do this by paperworking them to death with requirements of disclosure.

Of course, there's not much preventing them from lying to the banks. I dunno.

Re: Good morning, there\'s another worm ...

Okay...guess I owe my PC an apology, looks as though this was the reason that my already unstable at best connection kept dying on me last night...

Re: Good morning, there\'s another worm ...

Icebreak, I wouldn't even attempt to build a Bayesian spam filter (learning filter), as it's WAAAaayyy above my capabilities. Luckily the mail client I use comes with one built in, and possibly others do also. (Hmmmm wonder of a Google search on "Bayesian spam filter" would turn anything?).

Good luck!

Re: Good morning, there\'s another worm ...

Well, no wonder I couldn't get a filter to read a filter. I thought I could with the use of the onboard VBA in Outlook…right. I still think it can be done but thankfully I realized that if it was past Tomas, it was on the other side of the planet, traveling east at 110 mph as I traveled east at 90 mph.

Googled it and first hit is Paul Graham's "Plan for Spam" article. P. Graham's work He makes me look like a typist and not a very good one at that. Sheww.

Then I saw a nice article explaining what some developers for Mozilla did using Paul Graham's logic as a template. Mozilla developers It's a downloadable application. I'll do that at work.

Then I got a little more curious. I wanted to know who the smart guy was behind Baylesian theory. A little more searching rendered:



With it came: "I don't find (I am sorry to say it) any necessary connection between mere intelligence, though ever so great, and the love or approbation of kind and beneficient actions."

I love that thought.

How not surprised I was to see this gentleman's first name is Thomas. Now I'm more interested in his ideas than the solution I was seeking. I think I'm on topic here in this thread started by Tomas, one of the most engaging personalities I've never met.

You got me again, sir.

Good one, Tomas.

Re: Good morning, there\'s another worm ...

heheheheh ... I suspect, Icebreak, that we probably share at least one common failing ...

Do you, when looking up a word in the dictionary, usually end up reading the page you found the word on?

I know I do, and sometimes even get trapped into following other words to other definitions, ad nauseum ...

At it's worst, I totally forget for what or why I was originally poking about in the dictionary.

On line this is sometimes shown when it comes time to shut down my browser and I find I have well over thirty pages open.

(I also have huge files of quotes, .sig lines, and such I've run across that I've enjoyed or thought pithy. Actually, I have one application that I use for nothing else.)

*checking* Must have been a dull evening so far - only 17 pages open ... /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/huh.gif



Politicians, like diapers, have to be changed frequently - and for the very same reason.