A new Windows worm has been hitting unpatched Windows 2000 computers en masse - and causing blushes at several media organisations along the way. The basic effect is not damaging, but irritating: it forces the computer to repeatedly shut down and reboot.
Associated Press - which was itself struck by the worm - is saying the following:
A computer worm unleashed over the weekend infected more computers on Tuesday running Microsoft operating systems, with Windows 2000 users most seriously affected. The Zotob worm and several variations of it, known as Rbot.cbq, SDBot.bzh and Zotob.d, infected computers at companies such as CNN, The Associated Press [and] The New York Times.
CNN announced live on air that its systems had succumbed to the worm.
"The prime distinguisher of this outbreak is that some of the world's most trusted media has been hit," said Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant at Sophos. "In the case of CNN, millions of viewers were able to witness the damaging affects of the worm live on air."
Ouch indeed.
