How Viruses Spread

Nurech.A is a worm that is currently being spread through a mass-mailer. This is not a new virus but it does look like this is a new outbreak of it.

The virus is sent out through a mass-mailer to as many email addresses as possible, with subject titles designed to encourage recipients to open them, (in spite of the fact that they know they shouldn’t).

So the current outbreak has titles like “Together You and I”, “Everyone Needs Someone”, or “CyberLove”, and has a female name in the sender field. Of course with Valentines Day on the way this email is more likely to be opened.

It’s interesting to note how often viruses are being circulated at the moment using events such as this, (or current news items), to try to entice readers to open them.

Brewing up a STORM

I wrote recently about the storm worm that was doing the rounds. According to recent reports it has now infected 1.6 million PC’s, making it one of the most widespread infections experienced to date.

The main victims so far have been home users, and that trend is likely to continue as corporate spam-filters, virus protection and firewall solutions continue to ensure most businesses are safe.

In truth there’s no excuse for people getting infected with this as the technology is well able to deal with it. The real danger is those pople who haven’t implemented or maintained the proper security solutions and practices. Sadly, there are plenty of those type of potential victims out there, so we probably haven’t seen the last of this storm.