New "Obama Worm" found by Walling Data Systems

Hickory, NC – January 29, 2009 – Barack Obama is the first U.S. president a Facebook page and YouTube channel. In addition, the President has a million MySpace "friends, 3.7 million supporters Facebook and its database of e-mail campaign has 13 million fans. Obama is really the first country "connected" President.

When it is surprising that hackers have exploited the popularity of online new president?

Walling Data, North America largest distributor of AVG Internet Security, has discovered a new team this week threatened that the symptoms of interesting exhibits, including a pop-up in the face of the President the lower right corner of infected computers. Ironically, the worm was discovered on the network of K-12 schools in the President's home state of Illinois.

"From what I can tell today, the good news is that this worm is nothing more than a major hassle. This threat extends through external devices such as flash, where a network attack is generally more vulnerable – From the inside, "said Luke Walling, President of Walling Data.

"The first who discovered the worm in support work that brings us to the school," said Walling. "It appears that this threat has evolved into a development platform often used for the production of simple games, the version that finally seems to have been amended in December 2008. "

Walling also noted that the threat should not be an isolated incident, since it can travel easily through the use of external devices such as USB flash drives. The Schools are particularly susceptible because they often use these devices to move the working class before and behind the house and school.

Starting today, the worm is not detected by an instrument in the world of products based on data from virustotal.com and internal testing.

"We have isolated components of this threat and samples provided to security vendors to ensure proper and quick detection by security products. "

"This is a case to see the face of our president on the screen of your computer is not a good thing," joked Walling. "You have to admit, whatever their affiliation politics, this shows even the pirates have a sense of humor. "

If you are infected?
Walling reveals what he knows about "Obama" worm so far and what has been presented to security vendors.

1. The threat appears to have been introduced into the school network using a USB flash drive, or possibly by electronic mail.

2. The worm replicates by Obama USB storage devices and network shares.

3. Worm behavior indicates that it is more of a nuisance than a threat to sensitive data and that changes at the EXE / Bat / vbs shell extensions (ie, break exe) and replicates to a large number of files on the local computer.

4. On Monday, he will represent the face of President Obama in the lower right corner.

Lessons
Suggests Walling two things that can prevent these threats and other similar havoc on a network:

1. Ensure that all machines are "patches."

"Because this threat is detected by a security product, it is essential that all machines with a Microsoft operating system is completely and forever "tweaks." The threat that exploits Updates machines Critics Microsoft and the confidence that the anti-virus software to catch threats, "said Walling.

2. Establish use devices external. and the use of enforcement policies prohibit care.

"It is difficult for many small businesses and schools often labor and limited resources, to prohibit the use of external devices such as flash and external hard drives. Although these devices are convenient; also the easiest way for threats to enter your network. We always recommend that network administrators the ability to disable a machine to use external devices via the strategy group or at a computer for small workgroups. The prohibition of these products should be part of the usage policies to all organizations' Internet and, of course, must be strictly enforced. "

For more information Data on walls, visit www.wallingdata.com or call 828-459-7340.

# # #

About the Data Walls:
Walling Data is a group of divisions that provide the distribution technology and support services in America North, the traditional break / fix services to repair his two offices in Catawba and Iredell Counties of North Carolina, and Virtual IT department secured IT Outsourcing for its program management services. Walling Data is also the largest distributor of AVG Ant-virus in the United States and Canada and is an authorized Cymphonix, Cyber Patrol and other security products. More www.wallingdata.com .

About the Author

OBAMAFIED – Barack Obama Music Video