As a result of recent terrorist attacks on the world trade center and talks of
retribution (AKA WW3), virus coders have found a perfect time to release their latest
plague.
A new win32 based worm called Nimba is on the prowl and in the wild, hijacking the
computer resources of innocent civilians. It doesn't even require the drooling microsoft
outlook end-users to actually click on the child porn/love letter/advice query. It works
by infecting the computer through a preview window in outlook, making it a risk to open
any piece of email for the average know-nothing windows junkie.
What does the virus
do? A dream for any user of Sharesniffer, the
virus changes permissions on every file on the infected hard disk to allow full guest
access to the system. No more having to waste time using pqwak and breaking into cheap
win 9x cable systems, now the data on corporate NT systems around the internet is at the
cybercriminal's full disposal. With the information in some of the .doc and .xls files on
the victim's hard disk, thousand of dollars of credit card fraud could be committed
allowing you to furnish your whole house with 1000 meter wireless ethernet gear and
waterproof laptops.
Have those Model M's handy when the fallout hits, a few key
clicks will seek out and attack the credit card number database of people making
donations to whatever university or non-profit organization you choose. Searching for
homemade porn is always fun on cable subscriber's computers, but thanks to the timing of
Hezbollah, Fateh, and Bin Laden, the windows share peruser can explore the world of
Fortune 500 America's consumer databases right here in September 2001.
