Even worse than that

August 21, 2003

I’m reading about the Internet worms that have been bopping around for some time now, and I see this passage:

bq. The virus searches out stored e-mail addresses on victims’ computers, then mails out messages containing attached files infected with copies of the virus. Even when antivirus software filters out the infected file, the unwitting senders often receive a flood of return warnings about blocked messages they hadn’t deliberately sent,” the paper said. [ "Worm Wars II: Attack of the Virus":http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A25178-2003Aug21.html ]

Actually, it’s worse than that. When the worm mails these things out, it fakes the “from” address as well; which means people who have *not* been infected (like me) are getting bounce messages from anti-virus filters. In this way even filtering of the virus becomes an attack on the bandwidth and resources of even secure, non-windows networks.

Posted in Archived Unsorted