A85: Re: SD: IMPORTANT: YAHOO VIRUS

[Prev][Next][Index][Thread]

A85: Re: SD: IMPORTANT: YAHOO VIRUS


(I did a reply all, if you don't know who I am, this is a response to
something Keith Burzinski wrote)

DON'T DO THIS!  Posting things like this on topics you have NO knowledge
about is immature and only spreads needless panic.  Hell, tell them aliens
are comming too while your at it.  People at the Anti-Virus Labs at the
NCSA have publicly stated that such a virus would be, well, practically
impossible for a small group of hackers.  Also, government defense workers
have said the following: "the date was set so far in advance...  as to give
plenty of time for hysteria and nervousness to build, yet not too soon that
they're found out for what they are."

What happened is not an amazing thing at all, all that happened is a site
got hacked into.  It happens every day.  High profile sites are not an
exception.

Here's a fulltext article for you:

NEW YORK — Hackers broke into Yahoo!, the Internet's
most popular site, demanding the release of an imprisoned
comrade and threatening to unleash a crippling computer
virus if he is not freed. 
Computer security experts were skeptical of the hackers'
claim that they had implanted such a virus. 
The hackers, calling themselves PANTS/HAGIS, got into
Yahoo!'s World Wide Web site Monday night, leaving a
digital ransom note. 
Yahoo! is a computer directory widely used for searching
the Internet. The note appeared briefly in place of the
Yahoo! home page, preventing people online from using
the search engine, which got 17.2 milllion visits in
October. 
"For the past month, anyone who has viewed Yahoo's
page & used their search engine, now has a logic
bomb/worm implanted deep within their computer," it
read. "On Christmas Day, 1998, the logic bomb part of this
'virus' will become active, wreaking havoc upon the entire
planet's networks. 
"The virus can be stopped. But not by mortals." 
The note said an "antidote" program will be made available
if hacker Kevin Mitnick is released. Mitnick was indicted
last year on charges involving a multimillion-dollar crime
wave in cyberspace. 
Yahoo! representatives did not immediately return calls for
comment. 
Jonathan Wheat, manager of the Anti-Virus Lab at the
National Computer Security Association, said it is at least
theoretically possible to exploit security flaws on the
Internet and implant such a virus. But he said he doubts
this group of hackers — already known to security experts
— pulled it off. 
"That's pretty much ridiculous," agreed Jamonn
Campbell, an information security analyst at the
association. 
Wheat said there was little reason to be concerned that
the popular Web site was hacked. 
"A lot of Web sites get hacked constantly," he said. He
said that while Yahoo! is a high-profile site and should be
expected to have better security than most, "no site is
completely hack-proof."

At 08:57 PM 12/10/97 -0800, Keith Burzinski wrote:
>
>I just thought I'd let you all know:
>There may be a virus implanted into the Yahoo Search Engine.  I
>personally have no way to confirm this, however there was a warning
>message posted at my dad's work saying that some guy had implanted a
>virus into the engine and was currently using it as a threat (to release
>it) to get his friend out of jail.  This is all I know; I just thought
>you should all be warned in the event that this is true.
>
>For those of you on the TICalc.org mailing lists, I apologize for the
>multiple posts to all the lists, but I just wanted to make sure that you
>all saw this.  I'm also sorry since this is off topic!
---
 Eviljim (Jim Reardon)
 eviljim@megsinet.net
 ICQ UIN #1893323 (talk to me!)
 http://eviljim.home.ml.org
 "Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm
not sure about the former."
Follow-Ups: References: