BitDefender sees Al-Qaeda link in new Atak worm

Friday, 16 July 2004, 2:42 PM EST

A second variant of the Atak worm, which goes to sleep to avoid detection by antivirus software, has been linked to an Al-Qaeda sympathiser who once threatened to release a powerful worm if the US attacked Iraq.

Romanian antivirus firm Bitdefender claims the worm's author has signed his nickname into an encrypted part of the worm's code.

Mihai Radu, communications manager at BitDefender, told ZDNet UK that the virus, discovered on Friday, is signed by Melhacker, which is the moniker of a Malaysian-based coder called Vladimor Chamlkovic, who in 2002 threatened to release an "uber-worm" if the US attacked Iraq.

By Munir Kotadia at ZDNet.

[ Read more ]

Related items





Spotlight

The security of WordPress plugins

Posted on 18 June 2013.  |  Checkmarx’s research lab identified that more than 20% of the 50 most popular WordPress plugins are vulnerable to common Web attacks, such as SQL Injection.


Daily digest

By subscribing to our early morning news update, you will receive a daily digest of the latest security news published on Help Net Security.
  

Weekly newsletter

With over 500 issues so far, reading our newsletter every Monday morning will keep you up-to-date with security risks out there.
  

 

DON'T
MISS

Wed, Jun 19th
    COPYRIGHT 1998-2013 BY HELP NET SECURITY.   // READ OUR PRIVACY POLICY // ABOUT US // ADVERTISE //