Devastating "Storm" Computer Worm Waiting in the Wings

The lead on this Guardian story is right-on: Tech websites have been chatting up a rising computer threat called "Storm," a worm that travels in email attachments, but few outside the deep geeks are talking about it. But since no real "damage" has yet to be seen, it isn't news. Some say that's about to change, in a major, major way.

Storm is malware known as a worm, which is a lot like a virus except it's explicitly designed to travel from PC to PC via the Internet. Many of the most damaging pieces of malware ever written have been worms (you might remember names like Sasser, Slammer, and Sober)... but major worm outbreaks have been declining in recent years, probably since use of antivirus and anti-spyware apps has increased over that time.

But Storm is different. It was actually released in January, hiding in email with the subject line "230 dead as storm batters Europe" (hence the name), targeting Windows computers (as usual). But unless it's activated by a remote master, it doesn't do anything. It just lies dormant, waiting for instructions. Infected computers are turned into "bots," which obey commands to send spam, denial of service attacks, or other functions. But since it doesn't otherwise do any harm or impact PC performance while it's lying in wait, many users may suspect nothing is wrong, and they won't run or install anti-malware software. And that's why, some estimate, up to 50 million PCs worldwide could now be infected with Storm.

Even if the true number of infections is just 1 million PCs, that's an enormous amount of potential for damage. But who's behind Storm, and what might they do with it? No one knows. When the Storm botnet is unleashed on the world, then that will be news. Meanwhile, keep your antivirus software up to date... though it looks like even that is no guarantee you'll be 100 percent protected.

LINK: In millions of Windows, the perfect Storm is gathering