Mytob writers could be creating a superbug

Grok Headline matches for Mytob writers could be creating a superbug

Mytob writers could be creating a super
bug

Mytob writers could be creating a super
bug 06/06/2005 12:12 AM
Virus writers responsible for the recent rash of Mytob worm variants could be working on creating a super worm, a security researcher warned Friday.

Virus writers tweaking Mytob to create a
super worm

Virus writers tweaking Mytob to create a
super worm 06/17/2005 04:44 PM

Are Virus Writers Creating a Super Worm?

Are Virus Writers Creating a Super Worm? 06/06/2005 12:13 AM
Virus writers responsible for the recent rash of Mytob worm variants could be working on creating a super worm, a security researcher warns. The "HellBot" group behind the Mytob worms write programming instructions in their code that mirror the way developers work, says Sophos Security Consultant Carole Theriault. "The only conclusion we can come up with is that they are working on a big super worm," Theriault says.

Since its discovery in February, the Mytob mass-mailing worm has spawned dozens of variants, each just slightly different, according to researchers. However, each variant turns off an infected machine's security settings and blocks the user's access to security Web sites, Theriault says. This makes it difficult to get help once a machine has been infected, and Trojan programs accompanying the worms could leave a backdoor open for attack, she says. One recent version included spyware and adware, which could be used to reap monetary benefits, according to U.K. antivirus company Trend Micro.

News source: PCWorld.com

Read full story...

Independent Writers of Chicago (IWOC)
offers new online directory to help
businesses find freelance writers

Independent Writers of Chicago (IWOC)
offers new online directory to help
businesses find freelance writers 07/21/2004 02:45 AM
Free searches of database of professional writers specializing in your field; post a writing job for no charge. [PRWEB Jul 21, 2004]

Slew Of Mytob Worms Strike

Slew Of Mytob Worms Strike 03/28/2005 11:39 PM

Mytob e-mail worm proliferating quickly

Mytob e-mail worm proliferating quickly 03/29/2005 11:22 AM
The mass-mailing varmint makes up in numbers what it lacks in heft, security watchers say.

Superbug and Hackers

Superbug and Hackers 04/21/2004 04:56 AM

Hackers are like germs.  You throw equivalents of antibiotics at them, they'll mutate into superbugs.  For example, I doubt phishers will be tempted to hack Google to take advantage of AdSense Voluntary XSS vulnerability because they are getting enough loot from stupid phishing attacks to keep them happy.  Once Microsoft Outlook, the main phishing delivery vehicle, is plugged and their gravytrain runs out, they will turn into superbugs to find other means of getting their phishing lures in front of the user's eyeballs.

Oops.  I am out of tea for now.

New bid to tackle superbug rates

New bid to tackle superbug rates 07/10/2004 10:13 PM
The government is set to introduce new measures to tackle hospital superbugs.

NHS failings hit superbug fight

NHS failings hit superbug fight 07/13/2004 07:00 PM
A lack of monitoring means the NHS does not know how many patients are infected - and killed - by hospital superbugs.

Plan to fight superbug across NHS

Plan to fight superbug across NHS 09/09/2004 01:41 AM
Hospitals are told they must do more to tackle infections - including the MRSA superbug - at Welsh hospitals.

Superbug kills two-day old baby

Superbug kills two-day old baby 03/22/2005 04:38 PM
An investigation is under way into the source of an MRSA bug which led to the death of a baby boy.

Superbug deaths 'set to double'

Superbug deaths 'set to double' 06/18/2004 06:17 AM
Experts are warning that deaths from the hospital superbug MRSA could double over the next five years.

Doubt cast on superbug procedures

Doubt cast on superbug procedures 01/06/2005 08:17 PM
Isolating patients with the hospital superbug MRSA does not stop cross-infection of others, a study reveals.

Developing world at superbug risk

Developing world at superbug risk 03/24/2005 07:50 PM
Hospitals in the developing world are hit by 'alarming levels' of hospital-acquired infections, researchers warn.

Vapour could 'wipe out' superbug

Vapour could 'wipe out' superbug 06/09/2004 12:53 AM
News.bbc.co.uk - Tue Jun 8, 09:26 am GMT

Superbug strategies 'under fire'

Superbug strategies 'under fire' 09/02/2004 09:34 PM
Proof that policies to control the spread of the superbug MRSA actually work is weak, according to researchers.

Where Have All The Writers Gone?

Where Have All The Writers Gone? 07/30/2004 11:52 AM

Over the years, I've learned a big secret about building content-based Web sites. By "content based," I mean sites that are updated frequently and are meant to communicate continuing information about a topic. Not brochureware, but sites like blogs, or a site for your church, or your school, or your organization.

This big secret is the single most important thing you can do for your Web site. It is the absolute make-or-break characteristic of successful Web sites. Without this, you really don't have much. With it, it doesn't matter how limited your resources are, you can still have a great Web presence and a successful site.

Are you ready? Here it is: the big secret to a great Web site is....

Find people who like to write. And can write well.

I always look at Web sites as a three-legged stool. Leg #1 is the asthetics and design. Leg #2 is the functionality and programming. And Leg #3 is the content. But in a weird twist of physics, the stool can put a LOT more weight on Leg #3 than Legs #1 or #2.

Too many times I see Web sites being put together with no thought for the content that's going to go in them. At the initial meeting, there are designers and programmers and project managers, but rarely do you find a writer. We're so concerned with building the swimming pool that we often forget the water.

We had an intern in here this summer. She had just graduated with a degree in Business Communications and was kind of wondering what to do with it. I encouraged her to concentrate on writing for the Web. There's a huge hole in most organizations of people who can put finger to keyboard and express an idea.

More importantly, there's a lack of people who want to do this. And who don't just do it when they have to, but who pro-actively think of things they can write about and ideas they can communicate. We need people who put themselves in the position of a visitor to the site and think, "If I was visiting this site, what would I want to know..." and then compose that information.

It's funny when you think of all the time that we put into asking that same question to refine our usability. We ask outselves that question to make sure our menus are correctly ordered and the title of the page is right and everything else is perfectly suited to get the user to that information...then we put very little time into actually writing the information. Someone else will do that, of course, because we're the geeks. So long as the page executes and renders properly, what's actually in the page isn't our problem.

How many times have you heard of an organization that wants to put up a Web site so they go looking for computer geeks — people who know how to build Web sites? It happens with churches all the time. Lemme tell you — the first people you should look for when trying to build a site are writing geeks — people who know how to write, who are passionate about writing, and who will actually produce some text.

With all the hosted platforms out there today, you can get a great site with very, very little need for technical resources. Eighty percent of organizations would do perfectly well with a TypePad account or a copy of Radio, in fact. But instead we get some computer geeks involved, sink money and time into hosting accounts and platforms and programming until we have a technically awesome Web site.

And for what? A "Welcome to our site..." message, About Us, Contact Us...and what else? We're all dressed up with no place to go. We're a pro-wrestler at a spelling bee.

This then is a call for the writers. Where have you gone? We have enough programmers. We have enough designers. We have enough project managers. We need some writers. If you start your Web site project with with a group of good writers, you have 90% of the ingredients for a top-notch Web site.

Click here to comment on this entry

Writers wanted...

Writers wanted... 09/09/2004 11:10 AM
From Micah: Personal Democracy Forum, a new online resource focusing on the intersection of technology and politics, is seeking contributors for its website, blog and newsletter. We're looking for seasoned journalists versed, ideally, in both the political and technology industries who are interested in covering a wide range of subjects, including: how the Internet is moving votes, money and perceptions; the digital political industry; tools and techniques of clued-in campaigns; and emergent technology-enabled democracy. Political or business journalism background a plus but not required. We're looking for 800- to 1500-word features as well as shorter blog entries on ongoing beats....

All Hail the Writers

All Hail the Writers 03/06/2004 01:49 AM
Spent the past few days contributing a chapter for a forthcoming book on Emergent Democracy. My new mantra: Its time to put the demo back in democracy. One link at a time. Its been refreshing to focus on a long...

Writers wanted

Writers wanted 11/14/2003 01:41 PM
We're looking for a few new freelance writers -- and not just for NewsForge but also for IT Manager's Journal, DevChannel, and Linux.com. We pay for most material, but not all, and to get our top rates you must be a proven professional with previous publication credits.

War Driving for Writers

War Driving for Writers 06/30/2004 02:47 PM
War Driving for Writers, whereupon the denizens of the Comudev literary agency review places in Silicon Valley suitable for a wifi'd writer to plonk his arse. RSS Feed. Meanwhile, it occurs to me that the biggest change to be brought...

SF writers on the future

SF writers on the future 09/12/2004 05:30 AM
Cory Doctorow: Former BB Guestblogger John Shirley interviewed me, Pat Murphy, Kim Stanley Robinson, Norman Spinrad, Bruce Sterling and Ken Wharton, as science fiction writers, about the future. It's just showed up on Locus's website:

Cory Doctorow doubts the efficacy of big control and again sees information as the key: "The Stasi — the East German version of the KGB — had detailed files on virtually every resident of East Germany, yet somehow managed to miss the fact that the Berlin Wall was about to come down until it was already in rubble. Tell me again how a centralized government makes us more secure? September 11th wasn't a failure to gather enough intelligence: it was a failure to correctly interpret the intelligence in hand. There was too much irrelevant data, too much noise. Gathering orders of magnitude MORE noise just puts that needle into a much bigger haystack, while imposing high social costs. Fingerprinting visitors to the US and jailing foreign journalists for not understanding the impossibly baroque new visa regs makes America less secure (by encouraging people to lie about the purposes of their visit and by chasing honest people out of the country), not more."

Bruce Sterling speculates that big global government might take new shapes: "I had a brainstorm about this very problem recently. What if there were two global systems of governance, and they weren't based on control of the landscape? Suppose they interpenetrated and competed everywhere, sort of like Tory and Labour, or Coke and Pepsi. I'm kind of liking this European 'Acquis' model where there is scarcely any visible 'governing' going on, and everything is accomplished on the levels of invisible infrastructure, like highway regulations and currency reform."

Link (Thanks, John!)

Writers Forge

Writers Forge 01/26/2004 09:56 PM
Catalan 0.2.0 Released

Win five of the latest DVD re-writers

Win five of the latest DVD re-writers 12/27/2004 06:44 AM
ZDNet UK Dec 27 2004 9:08AM GMT

"Ten Mistakes Writers Don't See (But Can
Easily Fix When They Do)"

"Ten Mistakes Writers Don't See (But Can
Easily Fix When They Do)" 01/24/2004 05:15 AM

Virus writers in the wild

Virus writers in the wild 04/28/2004 10:29 AM

Overcoming Writers Block

Overcoming Writers Block 08/08/2002 07:54 AM
"I have no idea how it started, and it'll go away momentarily or for a short period of time, but then it's back again."

Successful writers take time to look it
up

Successful writers take time to look it
up 11/06/2003 07:24 PM
For example, if you search Google for "writing resources" -- that is, if you use the online search engine available at http://www.google.com to find those two ...

Six writers vie for Orange prize

Six writers vie for Orange prize 04/18/2005 12:29 AM
The shortlist of six female writers competing for the 10th Orange Prize for Fiction is announced.

Newspaper Writers on the Election

Newspaper Writers on the Election 02/01/2005 08:32 PM
In a small room in Stanford’s history building, a small panel discusses media coverage of the 2004 election. The guests…

Tech-writers - A Necessary Evil

Tech-writers - A Necessary Evil 08/02/2004 08:37 PM
WebDevInfo Aug 3 2004 0:44AM GMT

Virus Writers Stuck In A Rut?

Virus Writers Stuck In A Rut? 11/03/2003 12:21 PM
Anti-virus companies love to get people worked up into a lather about all the virus threats out there, because it helps them sell more product. So, it wasn't much of a surprise that, following the "big" virus and trojan horse problems in August, the anti-virus "experts" started warning that this was just a prelude to something worse, and that we should expect even more virus problems as soon as the current viruses died out. While it is good to keep users vigilant about virus things, these announcements served more to make people ignore the real problem: the anti-virus companies failed. Of course, you don't hear them speaking up now about the fact that their original predictions of "the next wave" of viruses immediately following the last wave appears not to have come true. Especially with the SoBig virus, we were told that the next version was supposed to appear in September sometime, but that never happened. Of course, it's good when we don't have virus outbreaks - and I have no doubt that they will come again - but once again we have a situation where the anti-virus folks seemed to hype things up beyond necessary.

6 8-speed DVD writers on test

6 8-speed DVD writers on test 04/29/2004 06:21 AM

HP DVD writers aim to play nice

HP DVD writers aim to play nice 07/20/2004 09:23 PM
The company says its new double-layer burners are largely free of compatibility problems.

have the TMN writers create their own
ending

have the TMN writers create their own
ending 11/02/2003 01:02 AM
The Man Who Was Hook .. Morning News Piece

themorningnews.org/archives/stories/the_man_who_was_hook.phptrack this site | 5 links

Virus writers look for work

Virus writers look for work 09/13/2004 08:50 AM

Writers settle with databases

Writers settle with databases 03/30/2005 11:39 AM
globetechnology.com Mar 30 2005 3:21PM GMT

Ten Mistakes Writers Don't See (But Can
Easily Fix When They Do)

Ten Mistakes Writers Don't See (But Can
Easily Fix When They Do) 01/27/2004 02:57 PM
Thanks to Adam Kalsey at inluminent for the pointer to Holt Uncensored's article, Ten Mistakes Writers Don't See (But Can Easily Fix When They Do). Some good tips for most writers/webloggers....

Virus writers winning the war, says
Microsoft

Virus writers winning the war, says
Microsoft 12/04/2003 06:02 PM
Creators of computer viruses are winning the battle with law enforcers and getting away with crimes that cost the global economy some US$13bil (RM49bil) this year, a Microsoft official said Wednesday. David Finn, Microsoft's director of digital integrity for Europe, the Middle East and Africa, cited estimates by BusinessWeek that financial damage this year from bugs like the Blaster worm and the SoBig.F e-mail virus, which crashed systems and disrupted Internet traffic around the world, would total some US$13bil. The cost of protecting networks against such cyberattacks was put at US$3.8bil (RM14.4bil).
Grok Description matches for Mytob writers could be creating a superbug
GrokA matches for Mytob writers could be creating a superbug

Mytob writers could be creating a superbug