NetSky vs SkyNet

Well... we heard about some problems friends had, with their emailprograms, recieving spam with strange messages. We ourselfs did not get them yet... but after the late-night news on television tonight, we had our laughs.

NetSky?! Hahaha SKYNET!

We Googled the word and the first English page we found had this to tell:

"Antivirus software companies are warning that a new version of the NetSky e-mail worm is circulating on the Internet, only a day after the appearance of a new variant of the Beagle or "Bagle" worm prompted similar warnings."

"NetSky.B, also known as Moodown.B, first appeared on Wednesday and is spreading through infected e-mail messages and shared network folders. Once installed, NetSky tries to disable antivirus software, steal e-mail addresses and copy itself to shared network folders, antivirus companies said."

"The new worm is a modified version of NetSky.A, which appeared on Monday. Like its predecessor, NetSky.B arrives in e-mail messages that have randomly generated subject lines such as "something for you," "hello" or "fake." The worm file is contained in a zipped attachment that also has a randomly generated name and file type such as "document" "stuff" or "party." File attachments with an .exe, .scr or .pif extension are also common, said antivirus company TruSecure Corp."

"Network Associates Inc. (NAI) is receiving between 40 and 50 copies of the worm each hour, both from customers and worm-generated e-mail, according to a company spokeswoman. Most copies of the worm appear to be coming from the Netherlands and elsewhere in Europe, said NAI, TruSecure and others."

"Antivirus companies released updated virus definition files to spot the new version of NetSky and advised customers to update their antivirus software as soon as possible."

"The new worm outbreak follows a similar infestation on Tuesday, when a new version of the Beagle (or "Bagle") worm surfaced and began spreading rapidly."

"The sudden appearance of virus-laden e-mail messages may be evidence of a virus spreading, or of a massive 'seeding' of a new virus using spam e-mail messages, antivirus experts said. A similar seeding was behind the sudden appearance of NetSky.A on Monday, said antivirus company F-Secure Corp. of Helsinki."

TF remark:

If you do not run Anti-Virus software yet... do it now! There are lost of different solutions available. If you do not want to spend lots of money right away, TrendMicro's HouseCall is a good alternative (though around the clock monitoring is out of the question).

Next to that, one of the most important rules is: do NOT open any attachments you do not trust. We learned it the hard way ourselfs. Just dump any message with attached .pps, .pif, .exe, .bat, .scr, .com and lots of other attachements we will not show. Check the TrendMicro definitions here.

Sure... your personal friend might find a PowerPoint very funny, and shares it with your, unbeknowst he is already infected. Please... do NOT open any of them. The laugh will be on you, if you get infected. By definition we always delete them and warn those friends that sent us the item. Those few minutes of laughs are nothing compared to the possible hours of hitting your head against the monitor trying to delete a virus... let alone having to format your drive and starting over (worst case scenario ;). Better save then sorry!

And on another note... the article above states that most infections come from the Netherlands, but we assure you that it is all a coincidence. We Dutch folks behind TerminatorFiles want global dominance of anything Terminator related... sure! But not this way! ;).

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