Taking Us by STORM

Taking Us by STORM 

The STORM virus is not new. It’s been around since January 2007. Why, then, are we so concerned about it? Surely by now, virus protection software can completely protect us from such an old virus, right? Wrong. According to representatives from F-Secure, a Helsinki-based antivirus company, “the Small.DAM (Storm-Worm) we posted on earlier spread very fast during the night, Helsinki time. The heavy seeding through spam was quickly obvious on our tracking screens. The worm was spread throughout the world very rapidly.” 

The STORM virus has even caught the attention of the FBI (FBI vs. Facebook). Of course, the FBI doles out some very sound advice: “Be wary of any e-mail received from an unknown sender. Do not open any unsolicited e-mail and do not click on any links provided.” They go on to mention that “you have received this, or a similar e-mail, please file a complaint at www.ic3.gov.” 

This virus has mutated — well, sort of — into a newer more powerful bot. It is spam, and it creates more spam. According to darkreading.com, “The bot code used in the infamous, massive STORM botnet that was taken down nearly two years ago is being used to build another spamming botnet. Researchers have reverse-engineered the tweaked version of the original STORM code, which so far has spread somewhere between 10,000 to 20,000 machines.” 

The scary part, of course, is that most of these machines did have some form of active antivirus on them. Now, the question stands: Aren’t the virus protection applications able to completely protect us? Yes and no — rather, not completely. I believe that virus prevention is a joint effort between the user and the antivirus/spyware prevention software. 

We can’t take the FBI’s advice too literally. It’s good advice. But we also have to do business, and we don’t always know the exact e-mail address of our associates. Be careful when you open unidentified e-mail, and use some computer sense. Recently, there was a virus going around that appeared to have a Microsoft Word logo and a .doc extension. But upon closer examination, it had a .exe extension, and .exe extensions execute applications. That application in this form is very likely a virus. 

I always recommend using a professional version of an antivirus software, depending on your network, I like VIPRE, SOPHOS, AVG, Symantec, and Trend Micro (although the last two use quite a bit of resources), but I would insist on coupling those with Spybot Search and Destroy. It’s free, but they ask for donations, and even $5 or $10 helps. Make sure you download updates, immunize and then search for problems. Nothing out there does everything you’ll need to keep viruses at bay, but the combination of these will help immensely! 

Below is an abbreviated list of a few message headings you might be aware of in your e-mails and have historically contained the STORM virus. You may find a complete list on snopes.com. 

• 230 dead as storm batters Europe.
• A killer at 11, he’s free at 21 and…
• British Muslims Genocide
• Naked teens attack home director.
• U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza…

The virus also comes with one the following attachments (more listed on snopes.com.): 

• Full Clip.exe
• Full Story.exe
• Read More.exe
• Video.exe

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