The MyDoom virus (creator as yet unknown) has the cunning knack of being able to harvest "to" addresses as well as "from" addresses from your e-mail package, so half the mails contain the actual virus, while the other half are bounced mails from other servers who aren`t keen to let the virus in.
The last time I saw an infestation of this magnitude was with the Melissa virus - my first infection experience. I can still remember the dull thudding of my heartbeat in my ears as I realised what had happened as my inbox suddenly filled with thousands of mails bearing the same subject line.
I am now fortunately in the position where unwanted mails and virus threats are old hat, and deletion is conducted with a blas'e flick of the index finger. But the persistence of the MyDoom virus has succeeded in working me up to such a point of irritation that I want to express myself using a very different finger.
I am not alone in this frustration. All around the ITWeb offices people are groaning with anguish at each new mail download. I`d even welcome a letter from my Nigerian buddies right now - at least they give me something to laugh about.
Vengeance will be mine
Part of MyDoom`s payload is to launch a future attack on SCO`s site, for its perceived injustices against the open-source community. But while SCO`s legal action against Linux users might be unpopular, the actions taken by the virus author are even more so.
Georgina Guedes, journalist, ITWeb
Part of MyDoom`s payload is to launch a future attack on SCO`s site, for its perceived injustices against the open-source community. SCO has responded by putting a $250 000 bounty on the virus author`s fat head. Comments on nerd news site, Slashdot, show that while SCO`s legal action against Linux users might be unpopular, the actions taken by the virus author are even more so.
"Let`s hope they catch them," says user, 'Timothy`. "Not merely because MyDoom is one of the most mindless attacks on our Internet infrastructure in memory, but also when they pay up, it`ll be less cash for SCO`s litigation engine."
Famous virus writers that have been convicted in the past are Simon Vallor for the Gokar, Admirer and Redesi viruses, David L. Smith for Melissa, and Jan de Wit, creator of the Anna Kournikova worm, who got off fairly lightly on 150 hours of community service. Even so, none of the virus authors` sentences have been longer than two years, but an increasingly irate public is baying for blood.
A survey conducted by Sophos last year showed that the majority (46%) of computer users thought that virus writer sentences were too light. A poll of slightly more vehement individuals on Computer Cops suggested that hanging was too good for virus writers. While I imagine that popular sentiment sits somewhere between the two, after the last two days of frustration, I wouldn`t mind the opportunity to chuck a piece of rotten fruit at the perpetrator if he ever gets caught.
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