The "MyDoom" virus could presage a
generation of computer attacks by organised gangs aiming to extract ransoms from
online businesses, experts said yesterday. The warning came as
the website run by SCO, a company that sells Unix computer software, in
effect disappeared from the web under a blizzard of automated attacks from PCs
infected by the virus, which first appeared a week ago. The
"MyDoom-A" version of the virus is reckoned to be the worst to have hit the
internet, in terms of the speed of its spread, with millions of PCs worldwide
believed to be infected. Such "zombie" machines begin to send out hundreds of
copies of the virus every hour to almost any e-mail address in their
files. On Sunday they began sending automated queries to SCO’s
website, an attack that will continue until 12 February. The attack is the web
eq A. an organization of gangs B. the infection of PCs C. the sale of a software D. a website’s vanishing
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