Today's stop on the journey to the most famous and deadliest viruses in computer history is Zotob, a worm-type virus that appeared in August 2005 and managed to infiltrate leading media networks, such as CNN, ABC, Financial Times, Associated Press and New York Times.
Exploiting a security flaw in Windows 2000's plug-and-play functionality, Zotob, as well as its most well-known variants, Rbot.cbq, SDBot.bzh , and Zotob.b, turned infected computers into part of a botnet,
[alert variation=”alert-info”]Zotob originated from the Rbot Worm, which could force an infected computer to reboot repeatedly. The advanced Zotob worm had the ability to replicate itself every time the infected computer was rebooted, creating multiple copies of the virus on each computer.[/alert]
The facts
- On August 9, 2015, Microsoft released security advisory MS05-039, which disclosed a critical vulnerability in the Plug-and-Play feature of Windows 2000, and also released an update to fix the vulnerability.
- Following Microsoft's announcement, the virus developers released several variants of Zotob and RBot, along with updated versions of the older SD-Bot and IRC-Bot worms, in order to take advantage of the newly patched vulnerability.
- Several companies, which had not had time or neglected to upgrade their systems, were attacked. The damages caused by Zotob amounted to $67,900,000.
- On August 16, 2005, the virus outbreak was covered "live" by the American CNN, as the virus managed to paralyze their own computer network
- The virus caused computer outages at about 100 American companies and news organizations, including The New York Times, General Electric, DaimlerChrysler, UPS, Caterpillar, Boeing, and the US Department of Homeland Security.
- In late August 2005, Moroccan police arrested 18-year-old Farid Essebar, suspected of spreading the virus, along with 21-year-old Atilla Ekici.
And somewhere here our today's stop on the long journey to the deadliest viruses of all time has come to an end. Stay tuned to Secnews for another devastating worm to be discussed. Can you guess which one?
