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At last,
the contents of Aardvark's "million-dollar ideas" notebook
are revealed for all to see!
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It's widely acknowledged that a large percentage of the Internet sites that
get hacked fall victim to "script-kiddies" -- amateur crackers who simply
download and employ any number of programs that test sites for known
vulnerabilities and exploit them if available.
In most cases, given the lax standards of security employed by many sites,
these script kiddies have little trouble in finding an unlocked door and
stamping their own form of graffiti on the web.
To a smart system administrator these script kiddies are little more than
annoyance. So long as all the software on a server is regularly patched
to fix the long list of security holes intrinsic to all complicated systems
then their systems are unlikely to be compromised and the attentions of
the Net underworld will move onto easier targets.
However, it seems that a new "any fool can use it" virus/worm development
tool has been released onto the Net and it is attracting a huge base of
kiddies who want to get into the email worm game.
The program is an updated version of the DIY virus/worm kit that was responsible
for the Anna Kournikova code and its creation has been attributed to a Brazilian
hacker who uses the handle [K].
According to published reports this is a very well engineered piece of
software that makes creating quite sophisticated worms a simple point and
click affair.
As a result of this new release, I expect we'll see a large number of email-borne
worms in the coming months -- released by a bunch who I guess we should call "worm kiddies."
What's even more worrying are comments by industry security experts who claim
that the worms/viruses created by this package are very sophisticated and
include encryption and code specifically designed to defeat traditional
virus-detection programs.
Fortunately, given the way in which the Love Bug and Anna worms/viruses have shocked
so many people into an awareness of the dangers these malicious pieces of code
can produce, a huge number of these new kiddie-worms will fail to thrive or
reproduce in sufficient numbers to pose a global threat.
Is there anything in the proposed Crimes Amendment Bill to cover worms and
viruses? I trolled the government's website but couldn't find any sensible
references. If not then I suggest the bill be amended or updated to include
such.
As always, your feedback is welcomed.
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Did you tell someone else about Aardvark today? If not then do it
now!
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