Virus
The latest round of Storm emails are disguised as greeting cards

Storm worm continues its rampage

Botnet makes new spam run, but security companies strike back

Shaun Nichols in California

Malware writers behind the Storm worm have launched a new spam campaign designed to bring more users into its extensive botnet.

The latest round of emails are disguised as greeting cards and contain subject lines such as 'Your ecard joke is waiting,' 'You have an ecard' and 'We have a ecard surprise.'

Advertisement

The body of the message contains a text link leading to a web page advertising an online 'greeting card' supposedly sent to the user.

On clicking either the image or the link, the user downloads an executable file that installs the Storm malware.

Infected machines are then connected to a customised peer-to-peer network which is used to control the botnet and install new versions of the worm.

This malware connects the user to Storm's huge botnet, which has been linked to spam runs and phishing attacks, and is said to be among the greatest threats on the internet.

As Storm's run nears 14 months, security companies are stepping up their efforts to slow the worm.

ThreatStop has made its normally private list of blocked Storm domains available to the general public, allowing users to copy the list and use it with firewall software to block traffic from known Storm distributors.

"We are taking this action because our users and test beds have seen that a significant amount of Storm worm traffic is blocked by the DShield lists that we propagate," said the company.

"When the internet as a whole is under assault like this we, as good netizens, should do our part to help."

  • Have your say
  • Send to a friend
  • Print
  • Digg
  • Reddit
  • Share

Tags:

Do you agree?

Related whitepapers

Related jobs

Most watched

eu flag

V3.co.uk weekly debrief, 6 Nov 09

This week, Europe decides what to do with illegal file sharers

Intel unveils its micro server platform

Small-enclosure systems take aim at hosting market

IT white papers

Search white papers

Top categories

Poll

Impact of Information Overload poll

Impact of Information Overload poll

What is the biggest problem your firm faces as a result of the data explosion?

View poll results

Advertisement

Advertisement

Newsletter signup

Sign up for our range of FREE newsletters:

Existing User

Newsletter user login:

Enter email address to edit your newsletter preferences

Job of the week

Search thousands of IT jobs :

Search thousands of IT jobs:

Advanced search

Hiring now on ComputingCareers:

Related IT jobs

Search thousands of IT jobs :

Search thousands of IT jobs:

Advanced search

Spotlight

eu flag

V3.co.uk weekly debrief, 6 Nov 09

This week, Europe decides what to do with illegal file...

Dell Adamo XPS

Dell launches ultra-thin Adamo XPS

World's thinnest laptop will be available by Christmas

Top 10 articles, 6 November 2009

The worst Microsoft products of all time, and a USB...

Iain Thomson

Pirate Bay shutdown could be inspiring online militancy

Recent Swedish attacks raise worrying possibility

Primary Navigation