Microsoft viral floodgates open

A new variant of Ircbot and a third Zotob are doing the rounds only a day after SC reported Zotob viruses had emerged.

"We were contacted some hours ago by an organization that had several hundred Windows computers in their internal network infected by a new variant of Ircbot," said Mikko Hypponen, director of antivirus research at F-Secure, writing on the company weblog. "While analyzing the malware, we noticed that this Ircbot variant had something new up its sleeve. This bot was using the brand new MS05-039 Plug-and-Play vulnerability - just like the Zotob worm."

Despite the plethora of media coverage some antivirus companies are warning people not to be overly concerned as long as their patching is up-to-date.

Trend Micro today revealed that the spread of Zotob has not yet been great and yesterday Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant at Sophos maintained that he did not expect the viruses to be "another Sasser."

Last week SC reported another interesting yet so far not deadly virus was spreading through mobile phones at the World Athletics Championships. Cabir infected dozens of phones within the Helsinki event. Finnish firm F-Secure warned German newspaper Heise that it exepects similar things to happen at next years football World Cup.