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4Ps
I Love You! I’m serious!!!
Which are the five most deadliest and commonly found viruses that can render your PC obsolecent? 4Ps B&M enlists the pests
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 The headline appears rather suggestive; it’s not! It’s one of the most deadly computer viruses that have affected the maximum number of PCs till date. [Indeed, the love bug managed to bite well!] Moving away from all expressions and phrases of emotions, let’s talk about something more practically disturbing. When was the last time you downloaded a file from the internet and discovered to your irritation that sometime later, your anti-virus has started bothering you with quarantine warnings? Worse, when was the last time you had to completely reformat your hard drive, made corrupt by the annoying viruses floating around? Annoying? Yes! They pushed you over the edge and made your laptop look like a piano that had forgotten what tunes mean, or some typewriter that your grandpa used some six decades ago, and had suddenly turned illiterate! Yes, blame it on those non-biological program codes floating around which we grandly term ‘viruses’! It’s also true that with every successful step of new breakthrough in the world of anti-virus programming, another deadly virus is born; another hacker; another purpose; another bunch of annoyed victims.
Here are the five most such program codes that are causing much anxiety in the world of PCs. [Go ahead, choose your enemy!]
PEST #1: Conficker
Disabling of Windows services such as Automatic Updates, Background Intelligent Transfer Service (BITS), Windows Defender and Windows Error Reporting, websites related to antivirus software or the Windows Update service becoming inaccessible, user accounts getting locked out et al – that’s precisely what this most devastating virus in recent times, Conficker can do. But this is just the trailer...
Conficker has till date, infected anywhere between 9 to 15 million Microsoft Server Systems running everything from Windows 2000 to Windows 7 Beta. The French Navy, UK Ministry of Defence (including Royal Navy warships and submarines), Sheffield Hospital network, German Bundeswehr and Norwegian Police are some of the high profile victims! [What a clientele!] Microsoft set a bounty of US $250,000 for information leading to the capture of the worm’s author(s).
It’s also known as Downup, Downadup and Kido. It’s available in five different variants – A, B, C, D and E. The initial variant was discovered in early November 2008 and since then 4 others have been identified till December last year. The variants A, B, C and E exploit a loophole in the Windows server services to cause a buffer overflow in which the worm is downloaded in DLL form over the network and then connects to files like svchost.exe, services.exe or Windows Explorer process. The worm pushes and pulls executable payloads over the network, which are then used by the worm to update itself to newer variants, and to install additional malware. It really is today’s PEST #1!
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 PEST #2: GHOST RAT
Ghost RAT, is a Trojan horse that acts as a cyber spying computer program. According to a report published by Infowar Monitor (IWM), the malware has been developed and deployed by Chinese operatives of the hacking community GhostNet, and are using it to hack into some of the most sensitive computer networks on Earth. The report titled, ‘Tracking ‘GhostNet’: Investigating a Cyber Espionage Network’ has stated that the Trojan till recently had continued to invade and monitor more than a dozen new computers per week. The GhostNet system deploys malware to selected recipients through a computer program attached to stolen emails and addresses, thereby expanding the network by allowing more computers to be infected. It can even turn on the camera and audio-recording functions, enabling monitors to see and hear what goes on in a room. The Trojan horse has allegedly attacked 1,295 machines at NATO and various foreign ministries, embassies, banks and news organisations across the world, as well as computers used by the Dalai Lama and Tibetan exiles.pest
PEST #3: TORPIG
Torpig, also known as Sinowal or Anserin (mainly spread together with Mebroot rootkit), is a type of botnet spread by a variety of Trojan horses which can affect computers that use Microsoft Windows. Torpig circumvents anti-virus applications through the use of ‘rootkit’ technology and data mines the infected system for credentials, accounts and passwords as well as potentially allowing attackers full access to the computer. As of November 2008 it has been responsible for stealing the details of about 500,000 online bank accounts and credit and debit cards and is described as “one of the most advanced pieces of crimeware ever created”. According to RSA, the company which helps to secure networks in Fortune 500 companies, more than 270,000 banking accounts and 240,000 credit and debit cards have been breached from financial institutions. The botnet is really one of the most advanced pieces of crimeware ever created.
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