The Storm Worm

 Bruce Schneier, CTO of BT Counterpane, wrote on WIRED:

“The Storm worm first appeared at the beginning of the year, hiding in e-mail attachments with the subject line: “230 dead as storm batters Europe.” Those who opened the attachment became infected, their computers joining an ever-growing botnet. Although it’s most commonly called a worm, Storm is really more: a worm, a Trojan horse and a bot all rolled into one. It’s also the most successful example we have of a new breed of worm, and I’ve seen estimates that between 1 million and 50 million computers have been infected worldwide.”

He wrote further that eventhough the worm has been around for a year, most anti virus companies are powerless to do anything about it.

It spread through e-mail, people.

Says Schneier, “Hiding in e-mail attachments with the subject line: “230 dead as storm batters Europe.” Those who opened the attachment became infected, their computers joining an ever-growing botnet. ”

Read here for the behaviors of the Storm worm.