Mikko Hypponen
Mikko Hypponen
Mikko Hermanni Hyppönenis a computer security expert and columnist...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionScientist
CountryUnited States of America
alarming appears biggest build competing gangs infected network rate three turning virus worms
There appears to be three different virus writing gangs turning out new worms at an alarming rate -- as if they would be competing who would build the biggest network of infected machines.
bad believe boys fact less people seeing situation targeted virus
We are seeing less of the big virus outbreaks such as Sasser and Blaster, and so some people believe the situation is getting better, when in fact it is getting worse. The bad boys are getting more professional and doing more targeted attacks.
computers happened running testing virus
As the virus is not new it's 2 years old this could only have happened if those testing computers were not running any anti-virus programs,
viruses worked year
I've worked with viruses for 15 years and things have been getting progressively worse. This year is going to be bad.
actively attack block everybody involved knows later lay likely low malicious might rather virus writer
There might be no attack at all. As everybody knows about the attack, the virus writer may lay low and attack at a later date. The ISPs involved can actively block malicious postings. It's more likely the attacker will lay low or be blocked, rather than succeed.
bent change evolution financial gangs operated virus
The most significant change has been the evolution of virus writing hobbyists into criminally operated gangs bent on financial gain.
anybody change relatively says trivial understand virus
It's trivial for anybody to understand how it works, ... To modify the virus is relatively easy, and to change what the e-mail says is trivial.
emerge happened mobile sure took viruses
It took 15 years for the first moneymaking viruses to emerge for the PC. On the mobile side, I'm sure it will happen. It just hasn't happened yet.
competing infected latest remove viruses
The latest variants of Bozori even remove competing viruses like Zotob from the infected machines.
beauty crime future might online problems running worried
I see beauty in the future of the Internet, but I'm worried that we might not see that. I'm worried that we are running into problems because of online crime. Online crime is the one thing that might take these things away from us.
common totally
Otherwise, it's totally new code. But there's a common idea,
code ends internet seen shared whether
It all comes down to whether the code ends up being shared or not. We have not seen it out on the Internet yet.
affected bug early fix learned range release wide
We learned of the scanning bug in early December, but because it affected a wide range of our products, we wanted to release a fix for all (of the affected versions) at once.
attacks buddy click dozens exploits files image messenger people seen send several since spam tries users using worm
We have seen dozens of different attacks using this vulnerability since Dec. 27. One exploits image files and tries to get users to click on them; another is an MSN Messenger worm that will send the worm to people on your buddy list, and we have seen several spam attacks.