Security Warnings: Take With A Grain of Salt.

Several people have alerted us today to this CNN story:

A disgruntled hacker with a personal grudge against Symantec, which provides anti-virus software to leading Fortune 500 companies, could be behind a new, crippling computer virus that's already hit a division of at least one big U.S. corporation on Thursday.

If it spreads, technology experts warn the latest strains of the insidious RINBOT computer virus could hijack network systems of businesses worldwide.
New strains

Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant with Boston-based IT security firm Sophos, said his company has been aware of "a number" of new versions of the RINBOT or DELBOT virus produced since Feb. 15.

"We believe this latest strain is the 7th version of RINBOT which first emerged in March 2005," Cluley said.

According to Cluley, this version is designed to exploit security vulnerabilities embedded in anti-virus software.

"Traditionally hackers always went after Microsoft's anti-virus programs. But now they're increasingly targeting other commonly used programs such as Symantec programs and others," he said.

Cluley said this strain appears to be hitting MS SQL servers. It looks for networks that run the Microsoft (Charts) Windows operating system, including Windows 2000, Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows Me, Windows NT and Windows XP. It then spreads through the network by manipulating "weak" spots such as simple passwords.

However, a quick review of the major security websites doesn't show any unusual alerts. Trend Micro's alert board shows all low threat malware. Sophos, quoted in the CNN story does not show either RINBOT or DELBOT on its threat board.

Lesson One here is take media reports of security threats with a grain of salt and learn to check the major security websites before freaking out.
Lesson Two: Is that good security is a way of life. Your network (home or business) is either designed to be secure or it isn't.

If you have given some time and attenton to security; installing security software, ensuring that it self-updates, installing and locking down a hardware firewall, then you can pretty much put your mind at ease in these sorts of situations. Only people who have not spent that minimum amount of time and expense need to worry.

That said, all it takes is one person to open that interesting e-mail with the Viagra deal... and all your good work can come crashing down. Fun, eh?

Email Scam: Hit Man

We just received this from Iowa Telecom's network operation's center and has been confirmed by the FBI:

A new scam cropping up in e-mail boxes across the country is preying not on recipients’ greed or good intentions, but on their fears. The scam e-mail, which first appeared in December, threatens to kill recipients if they do not pay thousands of dollars to the sender, who purports to be a hired assassin.

About 115 complaints have been filed with the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) since the scam emerged, according to special agent John Hambrick, who heads IC3. He said the extortion scam does not appear to target anyone specifically and that IC3 has not received any reports of money loss or threats carried out.

“This is a hoax, so do yourself a favor and don’t respond,” Hambrick said.

Replying to the e-mails just sends a signal to senders that they’ve reached a live account. It also escalates the intimidation, Hambrick said.

In one case, a recipient responded that he wanted to be left alone and threatened to call authorities. The scammer, who was demanding an advance payment of $20,000, e-mailed back and reiterated the threat, this time with some personal details about the recipient—his work address, marital status, and daughter’s full name. Then an ultimatum:

“TELL ME NOW ARE YOU READY TO DO WHAT I SAID OR DO YOU WANT ME TO PROCEED WITH MY JOB? ANSWER YES/NO AND DON’T ASK ANY QUESTIONS!!!”

Bill Shore, a special agent who supervises the computer crime squad in the FBI’s Pittsburgh field office, said recipients should not be overly spooked when scammers incorporate their intended victims’ personal details in their schemes.

“Personal information is widely available,” he said. “Even if a person does not use the Internet or own a computer, they could still be the victim of a computer crime such as identity theft.”

The extortion scam is a less subtle variation of some other e-mail scams designed to trick recipients into turning over money or personal information. Nigerian Letter schemes, in which recipients are offered the "opportunity" to share in a percentage of millions of dollars if they would first front some of their own money, are among the most prolific, along with phishing scams where recipients are asked in unsolicited e-mails to “update” their personal information.