To access the opening in a Mydoom-infected machine, said Chien, a hacker must not only sniff out the system by scanning, but also carefully compose the attack using Mydoom's protocol. "Parts of that protocol have been published on open mailing lists," he said, "but 'kiddie-scripts' aren't yet widely available." 'Kiddie-script' refers to tools which allow even the clumsiest hacker to exploit a compromised computer.
That may change, and quickly, if Mydoom follows the pattern of other big-time exploits such as last year's Slammer, and even earlier vulnerabilities created by worms such as Nimda and Code Red, all of which were rapidly supported by tools that eliminated the need for an attacker to have a high level of technical expertise.
"Today, what hackers really want is access," said Chien. "They want to own machines for e-mailing spam, for storing pirated software, or just to have zombies available to them."
And with the open back doors provided by Mydoom, that's exactly what they're getting.
To protect networks and computers, security firms have recommended blocking TCP ports 3127 through 3198 at the firewall.
To realize the benefits of cloud-native software, an application must actually be cloud-native—designed to run in the cloud, interacting with disaggregated cloud services, fully manageable as code—to deliver the expected benefits.
By combining resources and expertise, the AI-Enabled ICT Workforce Consortium will offer a blueprint for how industries can adapt to an AI-dominated future.
IT leaders should heed the guidance of cybersecurity insurance providers who think businesses should prioritize security education, incident preparedness, regular internal audits, and ongoing vulnerability scanning and patching.
