Viruses Spread Spam, Go Mobile

What's new in the world of viruses? Plenty, according to F-Secure's Mikko Hypp?nen. The director of the antivirus company stopped by PC World recently to talk about the latest trends. Interesting to note is the increasingly tight relationships between spammers and virus-writers, as well as new viruses targeting mobile devices.

This week's MyDoom worm is just the latest example of the link between spam and viruses, Hypp?nen says. The worm, which arrived as an e-mail attachment, slowed the performance of major search sites--including Google--because it used those sites to harvest e-mail addresses.

The worm also opens a back door on machine it infects. That back door can be used to deliver a Trojan to your PC, which could turn it into a zombie machine, used to send spam or take part in a denial of service attack. Already, a new worm called Zindos.A has surfaced, and it apparently takes advantage of the back door opened by the latest Mydoom variant. Hypp?nen also discussed two proof-of-concept mobile viruses discovered in recent weeks. Both the Cabir virus, which targeted mobile phones running the Symbian OS, and the WinCE4.Duts.A (or Dust) virus, which targets Pocket PC-based devices, were released by a virus-writing group to prove that mobile devices are not immune to viruses. While these viruses have yet to spread in the wild, it is a possibility, Hypp?nen says.

To stay up to date on all the latest virus news, check out F-Secure staff's virus blog.

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