Despite its virulence, the Klez worm is ignored by the newspapers and dismissed by the digerati. Could the demographics of its victims be a factor? Repeatedly dubbed the most common virus ever in recent reports from on-line newsmongers, it has yet to break into print in any interesting way.
A box of news clippings near my desk, most taken from the front pages of daily newspapers, proclaim the arrival of Melissa, Loveletter, Code Red, Nimda and even Kournikova. However, nothing for Klez or its equally press-shy older brother, SirCam.
[...]
Why so lacking in virus celebrity?
Maybe because Klez simply has no lobbyists -- no one to get in the face of the media and screech that it's bringing on the collapse of the Net. It has no one willing to recommend to the National Security Council that the country ought to be disconnected from the Net as a cleansing precaution, as did Nimda.
[...]
Klez, SirCam and other persistent mass-mailers, however, only lend themselves to discussions in computer help forums. In them, the much put-upon salvage workers don't have the luxury of the academic salon to indulge in abstract thought about the damn thing. The never-ending arrival of infected users (or just users who are on the receiving end of the virus spam) forces them into serial cutting, pasting and reposting of canned advice on how to find, and maybe even use, free Klez removal software. Perhaps it is a state of affairs that does not translate well onto the front page of newspapers.
In any case, the powerlessness of anti-virus measures is not an issue. Instead, the inability to do anything about the hard cases who always get Klez and its spinoffs makes the job unending and unappealing.
Knowing this, the enterprising virus-writer could aim to eclipse the Warhol worm. This would entail scanning for that segment of the population that fell to Klez, perhaps by using sucker spam. Those who click on some really brain-dead come-on go on a "to hit" list. Probes could be performed stealthily and in increments, until a truly monstrous reservoir of potential targets was accumulated. Then it would be time to fire the virus knowing full well that since it, like Klez, was infecting the type of user immaterial to those who watch for Code Reds, Loveletters and Nimdas, it would fly under the radar of all except the anti-virus software developers.
[The Register]
Very interesting ideas.
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G!
