U.S. homeland security prepares for Downadup

With the Downadup worm expected to trigger its payload tomorrow, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has released a detection tool for the federal, state and local governments to scan networks for the threat.

The DHS is also working with the country’s private sector and government partners to minimise the impact of the worm which is found to infect Microsoft Windows systems from thumb drives, network share drives or directly across corporate networks through systems that aren’t protected by the Microsoft MS08-067 patch.

"Our experts at US-CERT are working around the clock to increase our capabilities to address the cyber risk to our nation's critical networks and systems, both from this threat and all others," said Mischel Kwon, director of the United States Computer Emergency Readiness Team (US-CERT).

All Windows home OS users have already been advised to download the MS08-067 patch directly from Microsoft and scan their system using anti-virus software from vendors like Symantec or McAfee.

With many wondering exactly what will happen on April 1st, Trend Micro believes the worm will only use a new algorithm on the date to determine what domains to contact.

“We have not identified any other actions scheduled to take place on April 1, 2009,” Trend Micro states in its latest malware blog update.

Print | Email | Discuss this article

| Share |

READERS' COMMENTS

Click here to post a comment

Add your Comment All posts are sent to the administrator for review and are published only after approval. ArabianBusiness.com reserves the right to remove any comment at any time for any reason. Please keep your responses appropriate and on topic. Arabian Business would like to point out that only comments relevant to the story will be published. Any containing personal insults or inappropriate language will not be approved.
Name *
Remember me on this computer
Email *	(Your email address will not be published)
City
Country
Subject *
Comment *
Notify me of further comments
Enter the words above *
Please click post only once - your comment will not be published immediately.

MORE FROM ARABIANBUSINESS.COM