SCO waits for MyDoom attacks to end

Controversial software maker the SCO Group will continue to use an alternate Web site for at least a few more days, even though the denial-of-service attacks that crippled its main site were set to end Thursday.

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SCO spokesman Blake Stowell said the latest tests by the company's technical team showed that the SCO site is still under attack from computers infected by the MyDoom virus. The hits were expected to continue for at least a few more days, due to factors such as infected PCs with incorrectly set dates.

"All indications we have are that these attacks will not suddenly stop today or tomorrow, just because of the number of machines infected, the number that have the calendar set wrong and the nature of the infection," Stowell said Thursday. The company will continue to conduct regular tests, he said, and reactivate the main site, "once traffic trails off."

SCO, which has launched a controversial legal campaign against IBM and several Linux companies that has drawn the wrath of open-source software advocates, was targeted by the MyDoom virus shortly after it began spreading. Besides mass-mailing itself to any e-mail address it can find, MyDoom is programmed to bombard SCO's main Web site with junk data between Feb. 1 and Feb. 12.

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SCO's site was quickly crippled by the attacks, and the company has since been asking customers and others to use an alternate site.

The coding of the virus should halt the attacks, but viruses often do damage well past their expiration date, due to PCs with incorrectly set dates. The MyDoom attacks actually began 16 hours ahead of schedule because of PCs with the time set early. The destructive Code Red worm continued to spread well past its expiration date, thanks to misadjusted PCs.