Piloyd Worm Hits China, Government Issues Global Alert

On November 22, 2009, antivirus authorities in China cautioned computer users about a new virus mutating rapidly and had the potential for infecting different kinds of files on their systems.

The National computer virus Emergency Response Centre, located in Tianjin, said that the virus, dubbed Worm_Piloyd.B, could contaminate files like html, asp and exe as well as not allow the system to retrieve damaged files.

Furthermore, the virus was capable of making infected system download more viruses from some specified online sites, the centre cautioned. Worm_Piloyd.B is the beginning of a botnet construction as it compromises vulnerable computers and downloads more malware on them to convert them into "zombies," said the media reports.

While Worm_Piloyd.B is not yet known in detail, it isn't normal to find China issue a virus alert before other parts of the world have detected it. No computer security agencies from the USA and Europe have issued any conventional missives of disaster unlike their usual quick play post new malware detection.

Indeed, the US computer security companies and a lot of proficient antivirus developers haven't made any comments, which is probably because they are still analyzing the worm prior to releasing information bulletins.

According to a warning from the sources on November 23, 2009, the computer worm could head towards the USA and Europe soon.

Computer security experts have recommended that users make their antivirus software up-to-date and utilize the real-time feature of virus monitoring on their computers every time they go online.

Virus attack against computers in China isn't anything new. During 2000, Kaspersky said a PC virus called 'Unicle' wreaked havoc among computer users in the country as it exploited a vulnerability in the Chinese editions of Internet Explorer.

During 2001, another infamous worm called 'Nimda' created panic among e-mail users. BKIS, based on its own findings, said that the worm originated from China but that never got verified. Further, even though the worm had contents that suggested that its creation might have been in China, still those evidences weren't sufficiently strong.

» SPAMfighter News - 12/2/2009