'Red Code II' Lands in China, Dutch Hackers Claim Bug IntriguerThe National Computer Virus Emergency Response Center under the Ministry of Public Security reported that the 'Code Red II', a mutation of the deadly Code Red worm, have infected some Chinese computer systems.Because of its perilous contamination and destruction to computer information security system, the Ministry of Public Security has issued a circular to warn of the new version of the virus. Experts pointed out the Code Red II worm is the mutation of Code Red, hatched by a European virus organization named 29A, and would be more infectious and more destructive. The virus, which has been spreading since last week, exploits vulnerability in IIS servers (IIS 4.0 and IIS 5.0) using the Microsoft Windows NT and Windows 2000 operating systems. Dutch hackers claim responsibilityComputer hackers in the Netherlands have claimed authorship of a second version of the malicious Internet virus "Code Red", Germany's Federal Office for Information Technology Security said Tuesday.Hackers of the Dutch group 29a claim in news group discussions that they have put this version of the so-called worm-type virus into circulation, but no proof has so far been found that they were the originators, said Frank Felzmann, the German body's expert. Code Red III, More ferociousAccording to latest news, the malicious Code Red has developed to the third generation to easily permit hackers to tele-log on Web servers.The proliferating bug can manage to set up more than 300 programs, infiltrating into nearby servers prone to be attacked. Code Red III, being able to detect more IP addresses, has already incurred more Internet traffic in addition to what comes in from the outside, thus to clog the Internet. Rampaging computer virusesThe situation of computer virus is rather austere in China with only 27 percent computer users having not been infected by viruses, according to a survey by the China National Information Security Office and the Ministry of Public Security. Statistics indicated that during the days around April 26 when CIH virus broke out, anti-virus producers and emergency centers have received nearly 5,000 telephone calls for help from various circles like computer, finance, post, governmental departments, education and science research. A total of 73 percent computer users in the survey have encountered the virus and as high as 59 percent have been molested for three or more times. By PD Online staff member Li Heng |
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