Net braced for new Sober virus attack
Internet-security experts were predicting only minor impacts from an onslaught of the Sober virus scheduled to replicate itself Thursday or Friday.
Various security companies as well as Microsoft have issued patches to protect computers against the malicious worm that likely originated in Germany or Austria and reportedly would coincide with the founding of the Nazi Party 87 years ago.
Security experts told ZDNet that Internet service providers can actively block the virus from their systems, which will either minimize the attack or prompt the virus writers to pull back. A successful attack could cause the Internet to slow to a crawl.
The Computer Emergency Readiness Team said the virus would likely appear in e-mail messages in German and English and contain a bogus URL that will spread the virus if clicked.
Copyright 2006 by United Press International
