News.com: MyDoom virus declared worst ever
MyDoom virus declared worst ever | CNET News.com
By David Becker
Staff Writer, CNET News.com
Story last modified January 28, 2004, 5:25 PM PST
It's only two days old and still growing, but at least one security firm is ready to crown the MyDoom virus as the worst ever.
Finnish security software and services company F-Secure made the coronation late Wednesday, declaring the MyDoom the fastest-spreading worm ever and "the worst e-mail worm incident in virus history" in a letter research director Mikko Hypponen wrote.
MyDoom crawled onto the Internet on Monday, quickly clogging e-mail servers, as it propagated itself with millions of messages laden with malicious software code. An offshoot of the pest surfaced Wednesday but did not appear to be spreading nearly as quickly as the original.
F-Secure estimated that the worm was accounting for 20 percent to 30 percent of worldwide e-mail traffic Wednesday, putting it well ahead of previous nasties, such as the SoBig.F worm.
F-Secure credited the worm's fast spread to several factors, including aggressive harvesting of e-mail addresses and the fact that it was released in the middle of the North American workday, giving it several hours to spread unchecked among corporate networks.
See my earlier post about a removal tool from Symantec if your anti-virus software has not yet been updated to detect and remove MyDoom.
UPDATE: CNet has posted a consolidated page with all of their stories about MyDoom.