The Creators of Bagle, Mydoom and Netsky Exchange Pleasantries

In the space of 3 hours on 3rd March 2004, Kaspersky Labs detected 5 new modifications of notorious malicious programs: Bagle.i and Bagle.j, Mydoom.f and Mydoom.g, and Netsky.f. The situation is further complicated by the fact that these programs have already caused mass infection.

Kaspersky Labs has already released anti-virus database updates offering protection against these worms. At the same time, the war which has broken out between three different groups of cyber-criminals, the authors of Netsky and the authors of Mydoom and Bagle, is particularly interesting; each new worm modification contains the latest dispatch from the rival groups, none of which are mincing their words:

“Netsky.C”
we are the skynet – you can’t hide yourself! – we kill malware writers (they have no chance!) – [LaMeRz–>]MyDoom.F is a thief of our idea! – –< SkyNet AV vs. Malware >– ->->

“Netsky.F”
Skynet AntiVirus – Bagle – you are a looser!!!!

And, in the answering shots:

“Mydoom.F”
to netsky’s creator(s): imho, skynet is a decentralized peer-to-peer neural network. we have seen P2P in Slapper in Sinit only. they may be called skynets, but not your shitty app.

“Bagle.I”
Hey, NetSky, fuck off you bitch, don’t ruine our bussiness, wanna start a war ?

“Bagle.J”
Hey, NetSky, fu** off you bitch!

This exchange of courtesies between virus-writers has undoubtedly worsened the situation on the Internet, causing a serious epidemiological incident. Indeed, this latest incident may cause some to think that the Internet has been irrevocably transformed into an arena for a bloody battle of the viruses.

“It’s hard to imagine a more comical situation: a handful of virus writers are playing unpunished with the Internet, and not one member of the Internet community can take decisive action to stop to this lawlessness,” commented Eugene Kaspersky, Head of Anti-Virus Research at Kaspersky Labs. ‘The problem is not that no-one wants to change the situation, but that the current architecture of the Internet is completely inconsistent with information security.’

Kaspersky Labs points out that similar incidents will continue to occur with increasing frequency until effective methods for the prevention, detection and neutralisation of virus attacks are implemented on the Internet, with creators of malicious programs being prosecuted. Until this is done, any attempt to counter-act virus epidemics will be purely reactive, with unco-ordinated passive defenses failing to significantly change things for the better.