In Yamanner of speaking

E-mail worms are far reaching and seem to be catching the big guys off guard as Yahoo comes under attack this week.

The worm, dubbed Yamanner, came to Yahoo mailboxes with the false promise of a "new graphic site". The e-mail contains no attachment - it simply needs to be opened.

Once opened, a virus infects the machine and is sent to other Yahoo users found in the address book.

According to Yahoo, only a "very small fraction" of its users were affected, totalling about 200 million.

A new phishing scam uses the guise of trying to help the reader increase their online banking security.

Only a "very small fraction" of Yahoo`s users were affected, totalling about 200 million.

Ilva Pieterse, Journalist

Bogusly branded as Ohio Bank, the e-mail attempts to convince the user that due to recent fraudulent online activity, their details need to be updated in order to receive a new security mechanism.

The submission form asks for the user ID, password, card number, expiry date and even ATM PIN.

A CipherTrust survey shows almost two thirds (64%) of spam servers are in Taiwan.

The US was second with 23% and China came in a very distant third place with 3%. CipherTrust believes these countries to be so popular because of their low cost broadband access.

Further stats show there was a 21% increase in the number of new zombie computers and a 20% rise in unwanted e-mail traffic.

Israeli firm Aladdin has done a virus trend study and found that malware authors are focusing on spyware and Trojans as opposed to more traditional viruses, such as worms.

Last year, there was a 213% growth in spyware, and a 142% increase in Trojans. Further stats showed that 15% of spyware threats steal passwords and log keystrokes.

There has been a lot of talk lately on the new Microsoft (MS) Genuine Advantage anti-piracy programme. Many are concerned about the installing of spyware on user`s machines to keep tabs on them.

The application grabs a PC`s XP product key, PC manufacturer, operating system version, PC BIOS information and user locale setting and language, and sends the information back to the MS mothership.

According to MS, it is deploying this type of privacy-intrusion as a "safety-switch, in case notifications go haywire" on MS`s side.

Ziff Davis Internet Linux and open source Linux editor, Steven J Vaughan-Nichols, believes this reason is unsubstantiated and the tool is being run in order for MS to verify if any non-MS applications, like Firefox, or a different operating system, are being used.

Sources used: The Register, Microworld Technolgies, eWeek, IOL.co.za