Computers face virus onslaught

By ALAN HALL FOR MAILONLINE
Updated:

 

COMPANY computer systems worldwide face an attack by variations of the already-rampant Netsky virus, experts warned today.

Variants of the virus, which has plagued systems for the past two months, are surfacing with a vengeance, and computer security firms expect a fresh and intensifying electronic offensive next week.

New variant Netsky.Q is designed to attack websites that offer filesharing services, such as Kazaa - best-known for its music downloading.

The experts say a further mutation, Netsky.T, is primed to flood systems with a 'denial-of-service' attack next Wednesday. It will bombard systems with electronic requests, clogging up or slowing down networks. The attack is scheduled to last for 10 days.

The latest versions of the original Netsky, which has generated millions of virus-infected mails since it emerged earlier this year, arrive as a file attachment in an email and sometimes claim to have been scanned for viruses and given a clean bill of health.

'The ploy of adding a 'no virus found' message at the bottom of the email is deliberately designed to appeal to those who are too impatient to practise safe computing,' said Graham Cluley of antivirus company Sophos.

The latest Netsky viruses, Netsky.S and Netsky.T, appeared this week, and are the 19th and 20th editions of an email irritant that first appeared in February. They can look for 'back-door' ways into systems.

A close relative of Netsky, called Sober.f, has also begun spreading. Security firms this week upgraded it to a medium-level threat. Its symptoms are the clogging-up of email servers and chewing-up of bandwidth. It arrives as an attachment bearing a range of subject headings in German or English and grabs addresses from infected PCs to continue its spread.

Like their predecessors, the new Netsky variants target machines running Microsoft's Windows operating system. The viruses arrive as files in email messages with faked sender addresses and vague subjects such as 'Re: My Details', 'Request' and 'Thank You'.

Antivirus companies are advising the millions of workers who have found their computers afflicted by the new viruses that they should simply keep on deleting the rogue emails.

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