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Kama Sutra Worm Hits Softly
Posted by
Zonk
on Fri Feb 03, 2006 03:33 PM
from the not-a-problem-with-me dept.
from the not-a-problem-with-me dept.
An anonymous reader writes "Despite warnings of the danger posed by the Kama Sutra worm, ZDNet is reporting that things haven't been nearly as bad as expected." From the article: "There have been 'no reports of any (Kama Sutra) detonations so far. Also, the virus seems to be dropping in e-mail prevalence. It was down to second place yesterday, according to our monitoring stations, and slid again into third place today,' Paul Ducklin, head of technology at Sophos Asia-Pacific, told ZDNet Australia. The worm's ranking was overtaken by MyDoom and Netsky variants, which have been around for a number of years. "
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Kama Sutra Worm Could Make For A Bad Friday 317 comments
mikey1134 writes "CNN is running a story about the Kama Sutra worm, a virus that is coded to overwrite files of the (potentially thousands of) infected computers. They provide some background on this viral outbreak and warn users to protect themselves" From the article: "And even for home computer users who have never taken such precautions before, security experts say now would be a good time to back up your most important data, like financial information and family photographs, to CDs, DVDs, zip drives, or an external hard drive that you know is worm and virus free. Unlike a lot of malware that exploits vulnerabilities in the Windows operating system, there is no 'patch' that can be downloaded to ward off Kama Sutra."
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What? I don't understand.... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:What? I don't understand.... (Score:5, Insightful)
(Last Journal: Thursday September 30 2004, @01:33AM)
Re:What? I don't understand.... (Score:5, Insightful)
(http://www.ilikepuffynipples.com/)
Re:What? I don't understand.... (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:What? I don't understand.... (Score:4, Insightful)
If someone warns me that I'm about to get hit by a car, and I move and avoid being hit, I wouldn't say that there was nothing to be worried about.
More prepared? better prepared? (Score:5, Insightful)
Overreaction? Maybe, but definitly better than underreaction.
Uh oh... (Score:4, Funny)
(Last Journal: Tuesday August 28 2001, @07:17AM)
Nothing for you to see here. Please move along.
the first few times I tried to view this article. Are we sure Slashdot isn't infected?
Old Threats (Score:5, Insightful)
I, for one, would favor a slightly smarter Internet that simply filtered out known threats, stopping any further spread once they're identified. The fact that attacks continue to run years after they're first known is just plain stupid!
Re:Old Threats (Score:5, Funny)
(http://www.aceticket.com/)
Re:Old Threats (Score:5, Funny)
(http://slashdot.org/ | Last Journal: Tuesday October 23, @05:31PM)
Media Hype (Score:1, Funny)
Racy Title (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Racy Title (Score:4, Funny)
(http://margaritachick.com/)
The media loves it (Score:3, Insightful)
(http://slashdot.org/ | Last Journal: Tuesday October 23, @05:31PM)
Re:The media loves it (Score:5, Funny)
(http://www.anthonymclin.com/)
+1 to my dad for knowing that the answering machine did have a computer as a component
-100 for thinking that it was susceptible to a virus dialing it up and infecting it
The big question remains (Score:5, Insightful)
(Last Journal: Tuesday November 02 2004, @12:06PM)
Most of the users I support would rather reconstruct their documents than admit they clicked on a "free pr0n" e-mail. Wonder how accurate this news really is.
Killing me softly (Score:3, Funny)
(Last Journal: Saturday February 25 2006, @11:02PM)
I felt he found my letters and read each one out loud.
I prayed that he would finish but he just kept right on
Strumming my pain with his fingers,
Singing my life with his words,
Killing me softly with his song,
Killing me softly with his song,
Telling my whole life with his words,
Killing me softly with his song...
That's what came to mind when i read the title "Kama Sutra Worm Hits Softly." It's not my fault though, my mother subjected me to years of 'light' music on my way to school.
Anyways, I'm not surprised the media took this one and ran with it. When was the last time they had a 'major' malicious virus to talk about?
Re:Killing me softly (Score:4, Funny)
(http://www.chemicalwonderland.net/ | Last Journal: Monday September 03, @10:34PM)
Years of 80s music made me think that this was the Karma Chameleon worm. Seems to come and go. Whoa-o-o.
duh, this is the foreplay (Score:5, Funny)
(http://slashdot.org/)
IT'S NOT A WORM! (Score:5, Informative)
(Last Journal: Tuesday October 30, @10:59AM)
Surely Slashdot knows the difference? A virus/trojan relies on user stupidity. A worm relies on software insecurity.
Re:IT'S NOT A WORM! (Score:5, Informative)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_worm [wikipedia.org]
A computer worm is a self-replicating computer program, similar to a computer virus. A virus attaches itself to, and becomes part of, another executable program; however, a worm is self-contained and does not need to be part of another program to propagate itself....The main difference between a computer virus and a worm is that a virus can not propagate by itself whereas worms can. A worm uses a network to send copies of itself to other systems and it does so without any intervention
This thing (from what little I read) emails itself around when it can... which would qualify it as a worm.
I'm a little fuzzy on the intervention part... the user has to to the initial activation, which could be intervention, but then again you have to do the initial activation with viruses, so I don't think that qualifies.
This thing doesn't seem to make itself part of another executable persé, so it wouldn't quite qualify as a virus.
Maybe I read my definitions wrong...
Comparisons to other worms are misleading (Score:5, Insightful)
This information distorts the issue. Kama Sutra carries an extremely destructive payload, deleting a user's local data and data on attached network drives (and, worse, the antivirus software on the networked computers can't prevent these deletions). This cannot be directly compared to MyDoom or NetSky, which merely clog networks, install backdoors (that are not usually used for anything nearly as destructive), and turn computers into spam and DoS zombies.
The above statement is like saying that rainstorms have overtaken tornados in prevalence. That doesn't matter, because tornados do much, much more damage than rainstorms do.
Re:Comparisons to other worms are misleading (Score:5, Informative)
(http://slashdot.org/ | Last Journal: Tuesday October 23, @05:31PM)
http://www.flooddamagedata.org/data/national33140
http://sciencepolicy.colorado.edu/sourcebook/torn
Delayed reaction (Score:5, Insightful)
but but.. (Score:2)
(http://web.pdx.edu/~piercede)
http://webstats.web.rcn.net/cgi-bin/Count.cgi?df=
Soft ehh, (Score:2, Funny)
Misprint in the virus email subject (Score:4, Funny)
(http://killermookie.org/)
It's bleedin' obvious (Score:1)
Well it's pretty obvious. Most places that allow Joe Public to post or report news require registration. The Kama Sutra deletes DOC files, where Joe Public keeps all of his passwords. Now they can't access e-mail, post stories, or read the NY Times to even find out about the virus. ;)
But really, when the average user experiences problems on a PC, they're so bewildered by PCs as it is that they figure it's their fault and call upon the neighbourhood geek to fix their woes. Why would they ever hold software vendors responsible for any problems they experience in Windows? Downloaded software from Fred's Shed has enough spyware and malware as pack-ins, they figure it must be that. Or they just didn't know what they were doing.
Are people not getting fed up of experiencing problems? Do they just decide to part ways with PCs or that they'll buy a new one or reinstall everything? Wtf?
Yeah But... (Score:5, Funny)
(http://www.evilcon.net/)
"Despite"? (Score:2, Informative)
(http://www.corporate-sellout.com/)
How can I ever show my face at work again? (Score:1)
Now, it looks like I'll have to hang my head in shame on Monday. Curse you media, curse you!
Overhyped? (Score:2)
(http://www.threesquirrels.com/)
Yup, that's the whole thing. Sure glad that the folks at Ziff Davis linked to it!
Dang it! (Score:3, Funny)
(http://darthservo.blogspot.com/)
Now what am I going to do with 500,000 T-shirts, stickers, coffee mugs, mouse pads, and other miscellaneous paraphernalia printed with the slogan "I got pwned by Kama Sutra!"
Failed Marketing (Score:2)
(http://ghazan.hazara.org/)
"Oh Crap"
Where have all the virus makers gone anyway. We must either start funding script kiddies, or get into the antispam business.
Kama Sutrat hits softly... (Score:3, Funny)
(http://www.xutopia.com/)
I jest!!
Kama Sutra is a Tantric Virus... (Score:1, Funny)
Unintentional Humor? (Score:1, Redundant)
(http://www.zocode.com/)
-s
Only thousands of files and hours of work lost . . (Score:1)
Move along, move along.
Kama Sutra Worm Hits Softly (Score:2, Funny)
Oh THAT one might have hit softly... (Score:2, Funny)
crying wolf? (Score:2, Insightful)
Maybe this was the reaction intended by the author of the worm - to prepare the real next BIG attack when no one pays attention to warnings anymore.
Which is the better scenario? (Score:1)
(http://www.waterloosystems.net/ | Last Journal: Wednesday December 21 2005, @01:17PM)