When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works.

MyDoom Worm Spreads Via Search Engines

Internet users are being threatened by yet another variant of the MyDoom mass mailing worm, which is spreading in part by using e-mail addresses found through popular search engines, security experts warn. The new variant was first spotted late Wednesday and reports from computer users suggest the worm is already circling the globe, according to Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant at Sophos.

The worm proliferates by e-mailing itself through its own SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) engine, according to Sophos. When it infects a computer it scans the hard disk for e-mail addresses and then takes the domains of the addresses it finds and queries search engines such as Google, Yahoo, and Lycos looking for similar addresses, Cluley says.

News source: PCWorld.com

Report a problem with article
Next Article

RightClick 1.0

Previous Article

Bugs delay AOL Netscape beta