Bagle worm resurfaces

Two new variants of the Bagle worm have surfaced on the internet and are causing havoc according to anti-virus firms.

The new Bagle.ay and Bagle.ax have sprouted and are making their way around the world faster than previous variants. Discovered less than twenty-four hours ago the worms threat status has been raised from moderate to critical.

Spreading through email and peer-to-peer networks, the worms are discerning over what email address they send themselves to, avoiding addresses containing Microsoft, Google, etc. It also attempts to disable anti-virus software and copy itself to folders containing "shar" in their names so it can infect peer-to-peer networks.

It also opens up port 81, so as to listen out for commands from the author.Data passing through the port is encrypted to avoid use from other attackers.