New Worm Targets Portable Memory Drives

[Rich Tate]

A new worm named SillyFD-AA is making its rounds and will attempt to locate removable media like floppies or USB drives to infect. The potential for serious problems could be huge.

"It is interesting to see hackers using different techniques in their attempt to break into peoples' computers," said Cluley, in Abingdon, United Kingdom. "This type of attack is perhaps understandable as so many businesses these days do have e-mail gateway protection in place…they can scan files coming into their company via e-mail attachments, but can't check the files coming in attached to the keychain in peoples' pockets."

 

[cmshowers]

I've been concerned about this happening for a long time. A few months ago I was looking all over for a good flash drive with a write protect switch (like floppies have!). It was very difficult to find them and nobody seemed to understand why I would want this feature.

 

[iSkylla]

Silly worm

 

[masteraleph]

they can scan files coming into their company via e-mail attachments, but can't check the files coming in attached to the keychain in peoples' pockets."

Welcome back to 1991 and the Michelangelo Virus. Virus scanners have been able to automatically scan floppies for at least a decade and can do the same to flash drives. What the heck do they mean, they can't protect against this?