In a recent eNewsletter article, the author of the Netsky worm explained how he had created 29 versions of Netsky. However, he is not responsible for a new version of Netsky according to many experts. While the original Netsky author is from Germany, the new author(s) appear to be from South Korea. Two hidden strings, “SoonChunHyang” and “Bucheon”, in the virus code imply that the virus originated in or near a university called Soonchunhyang in the city of Bucheon. Since the arrest of the original Netsky author, there have been over 20 new variants of Netsky. Unfortunately, it appears that the original author posted the source code for Netsky on the web. That means that there will probably be several more versions of Netsky in the future. This latest version is considered a category 2 threat by Symantec with a high level of distribution, but with a lower level of damage. As always, this reinforces the need to keep up to date with virus software as well as Microsoft patches. Call your Responsive consultant to make sure your systems are as up to date as possible.
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