New computer virus threatens biz nets

[Chico Man]

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- A disgruntled hacker with a personal grudge against Symantec, which provides anti-virus software to leading Fortune 500 companies, could be behind a new, crippling computer virus that's already hit a division of at least one big U.S. corporation on Thursday.

If it spreads, technology experts warn the latest strains of the insidious RINBOT computer virus could hijack network systems of businesses worldwide.

http://money.cnn.com/2007/03/01/news/companies/virus/index.htm?cnn=yes

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OK, am I the only one experiencing an incredible amount of online financial trouble over the past few days?

First of all, I was billed from FEDEX for an $80.00 shipment that I did not make. FEDEX's explanation was a scanning error.
Secondly, I was ordering a laptop for my mother on dell.com and somehow the billing information was "switched" to an unknown third party by a "systems error."
Thirdly, sovereignbank.com online banking system has been down all day, due to "a major disruption in telecommunication transmission lines."
Fourthly, the stock market crash tho other day crippled several online trading sites due to the high volume of trading. I was unable to login to fidelity.com for quite a while.
Finally, reports of this RINBOT virus hit the news.

If someone were to hit us, wouldn't our telecom and financial infrastructure be our Achilles heel?

[htuttle]

1. We have also had a remarkable amount of trouble with the banking system this week

One example: We tried to wire money to one of our kids via Western Union (which we've often done before), and this time we were told we couldn't because we have an international credit card. Except that we do not, and we've used this card with them before.

We called our bank about it, and they were also mystified. They said that it is not a foreign credit card, and was in fact issued in Kentucky.

Maybe all a coincidence, but it sure seemed like something odd happened this week.

[lvx35]

4. I have had trouble too.

I got charged weird fees from my bank, and money that is normally transfered into my account wasn't there at all, I still don't know why.

[kenny blankenship]

2. Oh another WINDOWS virus. You had me worried there

your headline and the article mistakenly refer to COMPUTERS. It affects computers using the Windows operating system, which as such may be regarded as already infected.

[Ezlivin]

3. True, true - Titles should always indicate WHICH computer OS is affected

You can have three identical computers running three different OSes and only one of them is susceptible to a virus.

If all the CPUs running Windows failed, you'd still have perfectly good computers running Linux and Unix.

[ngant17]

5. Strange, I'm being legally threated with a lawsuit

for failure to pay for a large shipment of building materials (concrete blocks for a room addition) which my neighbor actually ordered recently. Their address is 331 and ours is 221. All I know is that the concrete company's got a screwed-up database right now, and I definitely didn't sign for $10k of building materials. Let them sue, I'm not worried about this one.

[AdHocSolver]

6. This is why computer experts should warn people about real ID, data sharing, and data mining.

Data sharing means data proliferation which means that the data is open to corruption and theft from insecure systems. When data is duplicated on numerous systems through data sharing, it will just provide more opportunity for crackers to steal it. They merely have to search for the least secure database and crack it, the weakest link in the chain. If the data theft or corruption is not caught immediately (a likely situation), the errors will be propagated throughout all the computers on the system. When it is so difficult to fix an error on one sytem, it will be impossible to fix errors propagated throughout linked systems.

The entire thrust of database development for the past 25+ years has been to REDUCE DUPLICATION of data due to multiple file systems so as to prevent errors in updating the records and to secure the data from attack. While mainframes were never totally secure from attack, the proliferation of client/server systems running Windows software can only be a data thief's fantasy come true. Linking these systems to share data is a nightmare and a potential catastrophe. Imagine the problems mentioned here occurring on a global scale.

The people promoting Real ID, putting your life data on your driver's license and sharing it all over the place, and using data mining techniques to catch "bad" people have no serious knowledge of computer systems. They are opening a pandora's box of error propagation and identity theft. Data security requires LIMITING data ACCESS to a secured system, not spreading it around. Decision makers are being sold a bill of goods by computer salesman and computer hucksters. Help spread the truth about the trouble these systems will bring about.