The War Continues

OK - which war?

The one CNN is concentrating on - Afghanistan and Al Qaeda? Or the one that, while not getting nearly as much press, is none the less every bit as damaging and costly; albeit not currently in human life?

I'm talking about the war being waged on the Internet between the crafters of worms and viruses, and the owners and administrators of the worlds' Internet connected systems. Yesterday (late November, 2001) a new flavor of the Badtrans worm called BADTRANS.B reared its ugly head as a concern. This e-mail transmitted infection follows closely on the heels of Code Red and Nimda.

Those of us who are by nature paranoid might put the blame for at least some of these worms at the feet of the same people responsible for the World Trade Center disaster - or possibly some other equally malevolent agency not yet engaged in direct physical terrorism. Regardless, you, the owner of a business whose computers are now infected with this or some other virus/worm don't really care where it came from or why somebody created it. What you are interested in is getting rid of it (or hopefully, not getting it in the first place) and recovering your valuable data in time to do payroll for the end of the month.

This month's article deals with the viruses and worms that have made owning an Internet connected system a pain in the you-know-what.