August 17, 2005
Commentary: , Science & Technology:
"We seem to have a botwar on our hands"
By Jack GrantThis sounds like something from a cyberpunk science fiction novel:
Computer virus writers at war, security firm says
News Story by Reuters
AUGUST 17, 2005 (REUTERS) - HELSINKI, Finland -- Computer worms that have brought down systems around the world in recent days are starting to attack each other, Finnish software security firm F-Secure Corp. said today.
"We seem to have a botwar on our hands," said Mikko Hypponen, chief research officer at F-Secure. "There appear to be three different virus-writing gangs turning out new worms at an alarming rate, as if they were competing to build the biggest network of infected machines."
Hypponen said in a statement that varieties of three worms -- Zotob, Bozori and IRCbot -- were still exploiting a gap in Microsoft Corp.'s Windows 2000 operating system on computers that had not had the flaw repaired and were not shielded by firewalls.
"The latest variants of Bozori even remove competing viruses like Zotob from the infected machines," Hypponen said.
In the larger scale of things, while this is creating disruption, it is nothing compared to the lives that are lost every day to hatred and stupidity.
Yet, this adds to the feeling that things are going too fast, running off the rails, barreling towards a wreck we do not want but are not taking any action to avoid.
As the world population rises and technology improves, the complexity inherent in the interaction of various societies, cultures, sub-cultures, and other groups increases, misunderstandings grow, and the potential to do harm blooms geometrically.
Is the human race wise enough to survive?
Posted by Jack Grant at 18:18 on 17 August 2005 Trackbacks (0) | permalink
