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Net Surfers Watch out for Viruses
Still reeling from the Nimda virus that infiltrated thousands of computers nationwide, Chinese net buffs are on the alert for yet another attack.
This time, however, the perpetrator is Warvote, a new bug that raged across the United States on Wednesday.
Though no cases of Warvote infection have been reported in China, the Chinese State-funded anti-virus task force has stayed on alert for the bug which slinks into computers via Microsoft Outlook, an e-mail and personal communication system.
"No reports of attacks have been called in, but you know, we have to brace for it," said Zhang Jian, chief engineer of the State-funded National Computer Virus Emergency Response Centre, in an interview on Wednesday.
Zhang assured Warvote is not as dangerous as its predecessor Nimda, the most feared virus yet named in China.
According to Zhang, the bug attacks when users open an e-mail in Microsoft Outlook titled "War Vote." "It is an English version so I think the repercussion can be temperate," said Zhang.
The "War Vote" e-mail carries an intriguing message: "Hi. Is it a war between the US and Islam? Let's vote to live in peace." When users open the message though, their desktop is devastated.
China's cyber community has been mired in an arduous battle against Internet worms in the last few months as pests like the Red Code series, Sircam, Bluecode and Nimda have wreaked havoc on computer systems, causing cyber traffic jams and collapses and cutting into corporate bottom lines.
"I feel embattled in a cyber terror war and really worn out as I have had to rush for patches (which protect against the bug) and stay alert for new bug tipoffs in the past few months," said Xu Xiaobin, a website engineer.
Xu's corporate network has yet to recuperate from the nefarious Nimda which slinked into China on September 18 from the United States.
Xia Ji, an engineer at Kingsoft Co Ltd, a leading anti-virus software producer in China, echoed Xu's agony. In the last few days since the outbreak of Nimda, Xia's firm has been overwhelmed with emergency calls, and the Kingsoft website was deluged with computer users trying to download patches.
"On September 22, there were more than 100,000 people downloading patches from our website. The figure is just eye-popping. There has never been such a rush like this before," said Xia.
Zhang Jian confirmed that Nimda is still active in China though the assaults have lessened as more people build up defense.
A recent official survey found more than 73 per cent of Chinese computer users had their computers infected by bugs at least once, with 59 per cent of them reporting at least three attacks.
Source: China Daily
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