The unsavory community of Internet virus writers is getting nastier. It seems the authors of the “NetSky,” “Bagle” and “Mydoom” worms landing in e-mail inboxes just can’t get along.
Since last week, at least 25 new variants of the three worms have been found, according to anti-virus softwaremaker Network Associates. The authors are tweaking code to disable competing worms that may already be installed.
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The goal is not only to gain control of an army of infected machines, but also to one-up rivals. Computers infected by such viruses can be used by hackers to send spam or for other malicious purposes. Worms spread by harvesting e-mail addresses from an infected computer’s address book.
Worm writers also are trading profanity-laced barbs in messages within coding. (Their high school English teachers would not be impressed.)
“Don’t ruine our business wanna start a war?” taunts the Bagle.j variant. “Netsky AntiVirus–Bagle–you are a looser!!!!” mocks Netsky.f.
“They’re trying to show who is better than who,” said Brian Mann, outbreak manager for Network Associates’ McAfee anti-virus response team.
Netsky.d has been one of the fastest spreading of the new variants. At its peak Wednesday, the worm was found in one of every 19 e-mails scanned by e-mail security company MessageLabs. The worm came with varying subject lines, such as “Re: Here is the document” or “Re: Your bill.”