Dagerous computer worm called Storm.....

A potentially dangerous computer worm called Storm has been silently infecting computers in India, creating a pathway into the system which can be exploited, either to steal data or flood your e-mail account with spams.

Having enticing subjects lines, the spam mails containing the worm baits people into opening them. Those who open the attachment then unknowingly become part of a Botnet (a collection of compromised computers running programmes having worms under a common command for nefarious purposes).

Experts in India said that the virus till now, has been infecting computers without causing serious damage. However, because it's gathering strength, experts are considering it a serious threat.

They say the Botnet could, in the future, serve as an army of commandeered computers to be used by attackers without their owners' knowledge for a largescale global attack.
Over 70% of all e-mail traffic at present in India are spams. Over 25% of these carry the Storm worm. The number of Bot infected systems in India is 4,000 per month.

An expert said Storm travelled through spam and was showing no signs of slowing down. "It hasn't attacked till now. Yet, it is a disturbing trend. It continues to propagate and therefore grow in strength. This poses a serious threat because it may be preparing for a big attack during the festive season. Hackers could wreak serious damage if they unleash a denial-of-service attack with it. What's worse, you can't counter the attack by simply blocking a single server because its origin is distributed globally," the expert said.

Courtesy:timesofindia.indiatimes.com
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