If your computer’s acting up today, showing errors or shutting off completely, it might be infected with “Sasser”, a worm that hit computers this weekend. It does not use email to propagate, but it copies itself onto random vulnerable computers directly.
Industry analysts suggest Sasser may have started in Russia. Microsoft is offering 250-thousand dollars in reward money for the identity of the author.
Last year’s Blaster worm cost companies millions to fight, but Sasser may not have it so easy, due to acute awareness of such threats. In fact, Microsoft released a patch more than two weeks before the worm struck, that protects Windows computers from the worm.
Speculation abounds that the very act of publishing a patch alerts would-be hackers and inspires attacks.
The best defense against such threats? Keep your security patches up to date, use anti-virus software and put a firewall between you and the Internet.
