Hi heinz, I also noticed that item. So far, nothing a few hundred thousand man-hours or a million dollar invoice paid cannot fix. Per our earlier exchange ...
Message 16097559
... I guess the probability is not so low, and the event not that far out, just the scale is still manageable and splash damage does not yet effect Charles Schwab or, worse, the financial institutions I use.
Chugs, Jay
technology.scmp.com
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Friday, July 20, 2001
Microsoft flaw faces attack by 'Chinese' worm
LYDIA ZAJC
A computer worm, with allegedly Chinese origins and the nickname Code Red, has infected an estimated 22,000 Microsoft servers.
The Hong Kong Computer Emergency Response Team Co-ordination Centre had posted a warning on its Web site but the virus had not been reported in the SAR yet, a spokesman said.
The worm was uncovered on July 13, according to Internet security company eEye Digital Security. After research, the firm's staff decided to call the virus Code Red because part of its intent was to deface Web pages with the words "Hacked by Chinese!" in red letters, said the company Web site.
According to security firm Network Associates, the worm affects systems running Microsoft Index Server 2.0 and Indexing Service in Windows 2000, along with Microsoft Internet Information Services. It would create a buffer flow attack - repeatedly attacking a system until it fails, and then using it to launch hits on other systems.
Abby Tang, who is with Network Associates in Hong Kong, said the worm was slow to spread at this stage. "We don't know the origin, but it's pointed to Chinese," she said.
Network Associates did not know if it only affected English-language versions of Windows NT 4.0 and Windows 2000 systems.
Reports said the worm would not deface sites or propagate on non-English-language versions. Ms Tang's Internet security company called it W32/Bady.worm after part of the defacement text.
The text also includes the statement "Welcome to worm.com!" but the URL does not seem to work.
The worm exploits a well-known Microsoft flaw, originally reported in a security bulletin by the software maker on June 18. The vulnerability allowed attackers to run code of their choice, according to the Microsoft Web site. "Microsoft strongly urges all Web server administrators to apply the patch immediately," said the company's recommendation.
Earlier this year, the FBI-led National Infrastructure Protection Centre linked a virus known as Lion to China, according to Reuters. The inter-agency taskforce said the malicious code could send password files from a victim site to an e-mail address in China.
Hackers sympathetic to Chinese and American interests took sides and waged a tit-for-tat battle of defaced Web sites after a United States spy plane and a Chinese fighter jet collided on April 1. A Chinese pilot called Wang Wei was lost at sea.
Mass organised hacking against US and Chinese Web sites, which lasted for about a week in early May, stopped after calls for a halt. However, anti-American sentiment would probably linger among China's hacking community, the president of the Hackers of China told the South China Morning Post soon afterwards.
The attacker, who used the pseudonym "Gao Jianfei", said: "We stopped hacking activities against America but in the future will rise up against anyone who dares to threaten our sovereignty."
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