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While the recent outbreak of the MyDoom e-mail worm (known variously as W32/Novarg.A, W32/Shimg, orW32/Mimail.R) appears to be wreaking havoc in e-mail systems around the world, the reaction across the Web, in community discussion boards, to the potential denial-of-service (DoS) attack on The SCO Groups Web site ranges from cathartic to reactionary.
The SCO attack, according to a report from Trend Micro, will come in the form of a DoS flood targeted at www.sco.com. When an infected PCs system date falls between Feb. 1 and Feb. 12, the virus reportedly will flood that Web site with worthless traffic in an attempt to knock it offline.
Reactions on Slashdot, arguably the largest discussion board for technophiles, displayed a cathartic wave of pleasure, “Finally a worthwhile virus!” exclaims one poster. While another adds, “So, uh where can I download a copy?”
Another Slashdot poster goes as far as saying, “SCO has used past denial of service attacks as the dog ate my homework type of excuses in court.” It went on to suggest that “SCOs next court date is in early February, maybe they havent done all their homework this time,” implying that SCO itself released the worm.
With recent legal actions, the SCO has ruffled quite a few feathers in the open source community. Even in our own ExtremeTech forum (which is notably a pro-Linux forum), SCO has been defined as the “enemy of Linux users everywhere.”
According to eWEEK.com, frustration with SCO ran high at last weeks LinuxWorld, with an IT staffer from the US. Department of State going as far as saying, the “SCO is just out for money.” Another IT employee, from an independent company, went on to say, “Most of our customers think that the whole SCO thing is a lot of bull.”
On Newsforge, conspiracy theories abound among the readers. One theorist suggests that the obvious culprit is the Linux community, however, its a case of more than meets the eye. He goes on to state that the Linux community is being framed by a “big corporation” who seeks to defame it.
The Virus Bulletin conjectures, “The SCO connection and current high prevalence (27 Jan 04) are the only things of interest about this virus.” Numerous IT managers across the world would probably disagree, but again, only time will tell if this statement will prove to be accurate. For now, the SCO connection is certainly making this virus very interesting to follow.