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  • FRIDAY JUNE 3 2005 8:00 PM

Spammers and Hackers: Scariest Duo Since Paris and Nicole

Submitted by Helter

Edited by bean

Yet another virus variant has quickly climbed to the top of the threat list recently. A new downloader variant of the well known Bagle worm is being picked up by antivirus companies. Some companies are calling this variant Glieder, after one of its components, since it differs from previous Bagle variants in that it doesn't spread on its own. There is one large and disturbing difference with this outbreak however. Unlike a true Bagle variant, it has no ability to spread itself and is propagated entirely through spam.

The attack, which involves a new combination of malicious code, shows evidence of "tactical coordination that is unprecedented," said Sam Curry, vice president of Computer Associates' eTrust security group.



The downloader disables antivirus programs and allows the infected machine to be forced to send huge volumes of spam itself. This, and the use of professional spam lists shows that with this outbreak, hackers and spammers have finally gotten together to distribute malware.

"I really hate to spread doom and gloom," said Curry, "But I think what we're seeing now is what we're been afraid of for a year or so now, a real partnership between the bad guys."

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Comments
Urobolos

Urobolos

Poway, CA
June 2005

JUN 03, 2005 08:04 PM

YAY! this means in no time we'll have a superhero antivirus program crossover and they'll team up across intellectual bounderies to destroy the evil doers in truly climactic fasion!....or not.

bean

bean

STAFF

Los Angeles, CA

JUN 03, 2005 08:32 PM

I'd just like to point out that while this isn't the first time that hackers and spammers have collaborated (that activity goes back a few years) it is the closest, most coordinated, largest collaborative attack ever.

One of the servers at the company I run was hacked a few months ago. As it turned out, Brazilian hackers had teamed up with Chinese spammers to compromise the server and then flood spam through it. It was pretty distressing when we figured that out.

HenryC

HenryC

Philadelphia, PA
November 2003

JUN 03, 2005 09:31 PM

What is this "spam" you speak of? Is this another one of those cool ass programs us poor Mac-using suckers are unable to obtain? I'm just going to go cry now frown

Helter

Helter

Chester, PA
OLD SKOOL

JUN 03, 2005 09:45 PM

bean said:
I'd just like to point out that while this isn't the first time that hackers and spammers have collaborated (that activity goes back a few years) it is the closest, most coordinated, largest collaborative attack ever.

One of the servers at the company I run was hacked a few months ago. As it turned out, Brazilian hackers had teamed up with Chinese spammers to compromise the server and then flood spam through it. It was pretty distressing when we figured that out.



Yeah, I wasn't trying to imply that this was the first time they had gotten together, just that the degree to which they were together in this was unprecedented.

Also, this is the same attack that Wesley, I mean WilWheaton wrote about.

d20

d20

San Francisco, CA
September 2003

JUN 03, 2005 10:00 PM

Helter said:

bean said:
I'd just like to point out that while this isn't the first time that hackers and spammers have collaborated (that activity goes back a few years) it is the closest, most coordinated, largest collaborative attack ever.

One of the servers at the company I run was hacked a few months ago. As it turned out, Brazilian hackers had teamed up with Chinese spammers to compromise the server and then flood spam through it. It was pretty distressing when we figured that out.



Yeah, I wasn't trying to imply that this was the first time they had gotten together, just that the degree to which they were together in this was unprecedented.

Also, this is the same attack that Wesley, I mean WilWheaton wrote about.



"hacked by brazilians" just doesn't have the same ring to it as HACKED BY CHINESE!!!!1

i'm happy that no one i know personally has been hit by a botnet/extortion racket yet. that said, it's time to go knock on wood.

bean

bean

STAFF

Los Angeles, CA

JUN 03, 2005 10:20 PM

Helter said:
Yeah, I wasn't trying to imply that this was the first time they had gotten together, just that the degree to which they were together in this was unprecedented.


Don't worry, I didn't think you were implying that. I just wanted to clarify that point before someone started yelling about this "not being news." wink

Also, this is the same attack that Wesley, I mean WilWheaton wrote about.


Yeah, I noticed that too.

ZPO

ZPO

Roy, WA
July 2004

JUN 04, 2005 02:42 AM

Dear Bill Gates,

Thank you for creating an email program architecture that permits directly executing code. Now I can have dancing bears in my emails. Granted, it also allow nefarious individuals to violate my computer, but dancing bears are cool.

Also, thank you for creating an operating system that allows malicious code to directly run on my system and disable the software I've had to buy in order to get around the first issue I listed.

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