CNN worm coverage round-up

Computer worms strike media outlets - Spam, Scams & Viruses - MSNBC.com is the best and most balanced of the mainstream stories about the worm.

Washington Post: A Media Worm?

Windows worms knocking out computers | CNET News.com:

The multiple worms are hitting individual organizations rather than computer users at large, said Johannes Ullrich, chief research officer at the SANS Institute, an Internet security training and research outfit.

"These worms are not having an impact on the Internet," Ullrich said. "They do have a substantial effect on organizations running Windows 2000 without last week's Microsoft patch installed.

Trend Micro alerts on virus exploit- The Economic Times:

" What makes the new worm, WORM_ZOTOB, so notable is its exploit of Microsoft Security hole and this 'exploitation' is believed to be the fastest in the history of malware creation, a statement said.

The new worm drops a copy of itself into the Windows system folder as Botzor.exe and it modifies system's Host files in the infected user’s computer so as to prevent the user from getting online assistance from certain antivirus websites.

The backdoor capabilities of the worm enable it to connect to a specific Internet Relay Chat (IRC) servicer and allow hacker a remote control over affected system, which can be used to infect other machines in the network.

Hundreds of "infection reports" were sighted in US and Germany. "Since most of the users may not be aware of the newly announced security hole so as to install the necessary patch during last weekend, more infections in Asia Pacific and other regions are foreseen, it said. "

Trend Micro thinks this is a whole new worm, which is different from Zotob, and is spreading fast.