File-Sharing Network Takes on 'MyDoom' Bug

Jan. 30 -- In a recent "Security Watch" column, we alerted readers to the dangers of using KaZaa, Morpheus, Grokster, and other Napster-like peer-to-peer file sharing services.

In using such services, explained columnist Leon Erlanger, you "open up your system to a host of security and privacy threats, including viruses, worms, Trojan horses, snooping, data theft, spyware, and more."

Read the previous Security Watch column here.

This week, as the MyDoom virus wreaks havoc on personal and corporate e-mail systems across the Internet, those words have taken on a new level of urgency.

Apparently, MyDoom was originally let loose via KaZaa. And though the virus is propagating predominantly via e-mail messages, it continues to worm its way through the most popular of the peer-to-peer file-sharing services.

Each time the virus infects a KaZaa user's machine, it copies itself to the KaZaa download folder, assuming one of the following names: winamp5, icq2004-final, activation_crack, strip-girl-2.0bdcom_patches, rootkitXP, office_crack, or nuke2004.

Popular Reads

Nationwide ground stop lifted after more than 4 hours; officials blame old tech

• 14 hours ago

Microsoft apologizes for email disruption, says AI agents not responsible

• 1 day ago

Baby buried alive for 24 hours released from the hospital; father charged

• Nov 11

This folder, of course, is shared with the many millions of other people on the KaZaa network, and anyone searching on those names — or something similar — may be fooled into downloading the virus.

Building in BullGuard

On Tuesday, Sharman Networks (www.sharmannetworks.com), the owner and distributor of KaZaa, issued a press release, saying that the application's users are protected from MyDoom thanks to a bundled anti-virus tool from the London-based software vendor BullGuard.

"Users of latest versions of KaZaa are protected against MyDoom and other viruses, provided they have enabled the built-in BullGuard antivirus feature which is updated with the most recent virus definitions," Phil Morle, Sharman's director of technology, said in the release. "The BullGuard software is free to KaZaa users and enabled automatically when the KaZaa software is downloaded. It provides advanced virus protection for peer-to-peer use."