Breaking News: New Windows Worm Reaks Havoc On Business PCs

DailyTech.com is reporting that a new Windows worm has reaked havoc overseas on over 8 million PCs, most of them targeted in the corporate evironment. Security analysts reported that the worm has been one of the fastest and worst in recent history.

According to DailyTech.com, “the worm — which goes by the names Downadup, Conficker, or Kido — had infected 8 million computers, almost all on corporate networks, by Friday.  Describes Mikko Hypponen, chief research officer at anti-virus firm F-Secure, ‘On Tuesday there were 2.5 million, on Wednesday 3.5 million and today [Friday], eight million.  It’s getting worse, not better.'”

The sophisticated virus infects exploits multiple security flaws in Microsoft’s Windows OS and injects itself into services.exe while then creating a new DLL file which means it runs on a restart. Once it has infected a PC, it creates an HTTP server and then downloads malware into the PC. It also completely wipes out a system restore which makes it harder for IT/Helpdesk to recover the machines. The worm’s main mode of transmission is via local networks which then allows it to infect the entire company.

Analysts say Microsoft did a good job of updating personal PCs  to battle this new threat, but a lot of companies may have ignored the patch update causing potentially millions of companies to have unprotected machines.