Ramblings' Journal

Major computer worm on Win2K computers; CNN/ABC/NYTimes & others affected

A new and particularly virulent variety of the Zotob virus has affected computers running the Microsoft Windows 2000 operating system this afternoon.

According to broadcast reports, this is the fastest propagating virus in history. CNN says that their computers in New York and Atlanta are affected, as are computers used by other media organizations, including The New York Times and ABC News.

Systems affected by this virus will shut down with no warning, and in other cases, prohibit systems from booting.

Microsoft issued a warning on Sunday regarding Zotob.A.

Zotob.A is a worm targeting Windows 2000–based systems which takes advantage of a security issue that was addressed by Microsoft Security Bulletin MS05-039. This worm installs malicious software, and then looks for other computers to infect.

When Zotob.A infects a computer, it attempts to deliver a malicious file named Botzor.exe. If your computer is infected, this file will be present and your registry will show changes.

Apparently, it was not thought to be a major threat until late this afternoon.

As of present there are a number of other companies, according to CNN, that are being affected in North America and elsewhere on the planet.

UPDATE 7P: CNN's crawl is gone on the bottom of the screen. There are other programming elements that they are having problems with. ABC was able to get World News Tonight off without a hitch, but other entities are not as lucky.

There are reports that governmental bodies in a number of states, along with systems on Capitol Hill in Washington have been affected.

Posted by mhking at August 16, 2005 05:59 PM | TrackBack