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Just how careful do companies have to be about new vulnerabilities and viruses? There is word that the first virus for the Microsoft.Net architecture has been circulated – and .Net will not even be available for another year!
The virus, named the "Donut" by bug-stalkers, has been classified as a low threat because it is extremely unlikely that anyone who isn’t a software developer would be at risk. The Donut is designed to go after executables that the .Net software will run, and it is coded in the Microsoft .Net Intermediate Language.
Analysts believe the early appearance of the virus shows a very strong interest by hackers in understanding the new environment, which Microsoft hopes will allow .Net software to control most consumer-level secure and commercial transactions.
The year 2001 was the worst ever for hacker attacks on computer systems since CERT, the Computer Emergency Response Team at Carnegie Mellon University, started keeping track. There were almost 52,000 reported incidents of network intrusions, viruses and attacks on Web sites in 2001, a 200 per cent increase in incidents from the year before. CERT said it had compiled a list of almost 2,500 system and equipment vulnerabilities during 2001 compared to about 1,000 the year before. A group called X-Force, part of the Internet Security Systems company, said it tracked new vulnerabilities at the rate of 50 a week during 2001, with a new virus or variant appearing every day.
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The year 2001 was the worst ever for hacker attacks on computer systems since CERT, the Computer Emergency Response Team at Carnegie Mellon University, started keeping track.
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