Shaun Nichols in California, vnunet.com08 Feb 2008
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A new worm spreading across the US has prompted some experts to warn that an
extensive botnet is being spawned.
The Mayday worm is spread via email and the botnet it creates is being used
to spread credit report spam.
Security news site
DarkReading
said that the hackers behind Mayday use peer-to-peer connections to deliver
instructions to infected machines.
Mayday spreads itself through PDF attachments in emails, and has the ability
to evade many antivirus products. The worm has reportedly amassed thousands of
infections, almost entirely in the US and Canada.
DarkReading cited security firm
Damballa,
which suggests that Mayday could amass a larger and more powerful botnet than
Storm.
Some security vendors, however, are taking a wait-and-see approach before
handing Storm's botnet crown to Mayday.
Symantec
researcher Brian Ewell wrote in a
company
blog that he has only seen limited incidences of Mayday, or
Daymay
as Symantec refers to it.
"It is yet to be seen how successful the Trojan will be in terms of expanding
its presence," wrote Ewell.
"Of course, it is always best to practise safe computing and that includes
being wary of unsolicited email attachments."
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Security firms warn of new malware targeting the gullible 28 Jan 2008
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