worm

Botnet worm in DOS attacks could wipe data out on infected PCs

The denial-of-service attacks against Web sites in the U.S. and South Korea that started last weekend may have stopped for now, but code on the infected bots was set to wipe data on Friday, security experts said.

There were no immediate reports of any of the compromised PCs in the botnet having files deleted, but that doesn't mean it wasn't happening or won't in the future, said Gerry Egan, a product manager in Symantec's Security Technology Response group. (Click here for Larry Magid's related podcast with Symantec expert.)

There are only about 50,000 … Read more

Waledac worm targeting July 4 spam offensive

The Waledac worm is gearing up for a spam campaign related to the July 4 holiday, a security researcher warned on Thursday.

Researchers analyzing the code of the worm, which has been deploying updates to previously compromised PCs, have discovered that at least 18 domain names have been registered related to fireworks and Independence Day that will be used to trick people into visiting a malicious Web site, said Pierre-Marc Bureau, a senior researcher at antivirus vendor ESET.

Starting any time now and lasting through the weekend, the spam e-mails will arrive in in-boxes with a message urging the recipient … Read more

That e-mail attachment is not a Twitter invite

Symantec is warning about a mass-mailing worm that comes in an attachment pretending to be a Twitter invite.

"The observed messages appear as if they have been sent from a Twitter account; however, unlike a legitimate Twitter message, there is no invitation URL present in the body," a Symantec blog post says. "Instead, the user will see an attachment that appears as a .zip file that purportedly contains an invitation card."

The name of the attachment is "Invitation Card.zip" and Symantec identified it as W32.Ackantta.B@mm, a worm targeting Windows computers … Read more

Touch to aim, and fire!

Pocket Tanks is the iPhone/iPod Touch version of the popular desktop artillery game Pocket Tanks for the Mac and PC. This app includes some minimal touch controls (including a scrolling, zoomable battlefield) but otherwise it deviates little from the desktop version in both appearance and gameplay. As with similar artillery games, you and an opponent (an AI, or other person sharing the same device) each control tanks that take turns firing at each other over mountainous terrain, adjusting angle and power to line up the perfect shot.

What makes Pocket Tanks interesting is the large array of unusual weapons (… Read more

Gadgettes 136: The dog people are weird (but cat people are weirder) episode

Treat your pets right this Mother's Day! We spend equal time talking about gifts for mom and for fluffy. Go figure.

Subscribe with iTunes (audio) Subscribe with iTunes (video) Subscribe with RSS (audio) Subscribe with RSS (video)

EPISODE 136

Petairways.com–for the pet who loves to travel (Thanks Sheala!)

Honda unveils dog-friendly car

The Tweeting Cat Door (Thanks Nathan!)

New worm-like floor-cleaning robot threatens Roomba’s dominance

Digigrade Leg Extensions

Dog poo recycler

Special Edition Mother’s Day Gender Gap Danielle Steel Limited Edition Reader Digital Book is More of the Same just in Red (No! Don’t do it! Get a Kindle instead!)

Mother of the Year video

Mother’s Day shirt for the geeky mom-to-be

A propos (of) nothing Lego sunglasses let you build your own fashion

What a concept Portable toaster

Why didn’t I think of that? PermaFLOW Self Cleaning Drain System

Pretty Gorgeous iphone cases (thanks fernando!)

Good Vibrations (Thanks Fred!) DIY Steam punk vibrators… Read more

McAfee: New botnets dwarf Conficker threat

The Conficker worm, which has set off many a recent security alarm bell, may just be a small fry, compared to the growing number of botnets, viruses, and worms infecting cyberspace.

According to a report released on Tuesday from security vendor McAfee (PDF), cybercriminals have hijacked 12 million new computers since January with an array of new malware. This represents a 50 percent increase in the number of "zombie" computers over 2008.

The United States now hosts the world's largest percentage of infected computers, 18 percent, according to the McAfee report. China is next on McAfee's … Read more

Teen Twitter worm writer gets job, spreads new worm

The teenager who takes credit for the worms that hit Twitter earlier this week has been hired by a Web application development firm and on Friday released a fifth worm on the microblogging site, he said.

Twitter fought off four waves of worm attacks last weekend and into Monday in which Twitter users were infected just by clicking on the name or image of someone whose account was infected. The worms appeared to do no damage other than spread to infected users' followers and modify profile pages.

Michael Mooney, a 17-year-old living in Brooklyn, N.Y., told CNET News that … Read more

Twitter cleans up after weekend worm attacks

Twitter security engineers were cleaning up on Monday following a series of worm attacks over the weekend, including at least two credited to a bored 17-year-old.

In the first attack, which began early on Saturday, four new accounts began spreading a worm, compromising about 90 accounts, Twitter co-founder Biz Stone wrote in a posting on the Twitter blog.

The worms appeared to do no damage other than spread to infected users' followers and modify profile pages. You can get infected just by clicking on the name or image of someone whose account was infected.

Later that afternoon, about 100 accounts … Read more

Telltale signs of a computer virus infection

PCs do the darnedest things. When a program crashes, your system slows down, or a file or program refuses to open, it's probably due to a problem with an application or device. But not always. Computer viruses and worms will cause your PC to exhibit many of the same symptoms as a failed or failing component or program.

Here are some of the primary indicators that your system is infected:

• Your system slows to a crawl for no apparent reason. • The machine crashes, with or without an automatic restart. • Error messages pop up repeatedly. • Programs or files open slowly … Read more

Teen takes responsibility for Twitter worms

Updated at 7:40 p.m. PDT with more information from the worm's creator.

As a second Twitter exploit began circulating on the micro-blogging site Sunday, a teen-ager from Brooklyn told CNET News he created both worms because he was bored and wanted to draw attention to the Twitter flaw.

Much like Saturday's StalkDaily worm, the "Mikeyy" worm posts unwanted messages to users' pages. The "Mikeyy" worm began spreading on the micro-blogging site early Sunday, posting messages such as "Mikeyy I am done...," "MikeyyMikeyy is done.," and "Twitter please … Read more