MyDoom not all doom and gloom for business
MyDoom not all doom and gloom for business
After all the brouhaha about the MyDoom virus that we have heard in the last week or so, it would appear that the actual impact to businesses was negligible.
At least, that is the view of security software company TruSecure, whose research into the virus reveals that while MyDoom was one of the fastest spreading viruses ever, consuming approximately 2-3 times more mail volume than any other previous worm, the actual trail of damage it left behind was far less severe than any of the other major worms to occur in the last five years.
TruSecure studied 1,610 businesses worldwide, across a broad range of sectors to reveal the real effects of the MyDoom worm. The results, according to the security vendor, prove that effects of MyDoom have been over hyped.
For example, TruSecure's research shows MyDoom had major impact on about 1.5 percent of all larger companies and only 13 percent of companies experienced either major or moderate impact from MyDoom. In contrast, the least problematic of the other important worms in the past five years had 27 percent major or moderate impact and the average of the others caused major or moderate impact at nearly 40 percent of all larger companies.
Leanne Fleming, Senior Security Consultant at TruSecure comments: "Of the other worms in the past 4 years, Sobig and LoveLetter are most comparable to MyDoom because they all operated as primary email infectors. Blaster, Slammer, Nachi, Nimda and Code Red made up the remainder of the 'important worms'.
"There was nothing new about the MyDoom worm. MyDoom was the functional equivalent of throwing a lot of rocks at the outer wall of a castle," she said. "It has made a lot of noise but hasn't impacted security in the slightest."
Fleming concluded: "The biggest problem for the Internet as a whole is that mail servers are burdened with an extra load of junk mail, not only from the worm itself but also from perimeter scanners that automatically bounce back infected messages to the apparent sender. Virtually all mass-mailer malware uses spoofed sender addresses, so it is way past time for administrators to turn off the bounce back feature."
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