The Little Worm that Could (Zotob)

Although announced yesterday as a worm that was not causing many problems apparently has hit some companies big...

Worm Hits TV Networks, N.Y. Times
By Brian Krebs and Mike Musgrove
Washington Post Staff Writers
Wednesday, August 17, 2005

A new Internet worm infected and disrupted computers and networks at CNN, ABC and the New York Times yesterday.

Security experts said the worm is a variant of Zotob, which first appeared on Sunday and does not limit its attack to media companies. Zotob infected computers running Microsoft Corp.'s Windows 2000 operating system. A spokeswoman for Microsoft said yesterday that the company does not know yet whether the new software, which it has named worm_rbot.ceq, is a version of that worm. Full article.

NOTE: David Perry, of TrendMicro, said "that the authors of Zotob, on learning of the vulnerability, had apparently created an effective worm in only a few days, making it one of the "fastest turnarounds" for such an effort.

Graphic of worm functionality from TrendMicro: