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If fish eat worms, what do worms eat? Music
If you're like most computer users, you probably have nearly 900 MP3s on your computer. If you're like most Download Squad readers you probably have closer to 9,000. Either way, they could all be gone in the blink of an eye.A new worm called W32.Deletemusic is moving from computer to computer in search of tasty MP3 files to eat (ie: delete). That's pretty much all this worm does. It won't steal your credit card information or other personal data. It won't send spam to everyone on your contact list. But it could remove hundreds or even thousands of files that you've paid to download or rip from your own CD collection.
It's not clear whether the worm was written by some amateur hacker looking to see what he could accomplish or someone hoping to spread an anti-piracy message, you know by deleting legitimate music files. Because that'll show you.
Anyway, the worm can Windows machines running Windows 95 through Vista. The worm can be removed, but by the time you discover your computer's been infected it may be too late. So you might want to disable autorun on your PC until you've updated your virus definitions.
Comments
12
Subscribe to commentsDonaldAug 3rd 2007 10:21PM
WHAT? 9000? Surely you underestimate your readership. I get the feeling the average would be somewhere in the 5 digits.
Disclaimer: My collection is more like 2000.
ManAug 3rd 2007 10:21PM
I have about 90 songs on my PC.
And still I barely listen to them.
MimzyAug 3rd 2007 10:43PM
Wow...thanks for the warning. However, one thing I'm still wondering about - exactly how does this end up on people's computers?
TomAug 4th 2007 9:14AM
Right? None of the articles says how the worm is spread.
AbscissaAug 4th 2007 4:16PM
Pfft...who would want autorun enabled in the first place? That shit is ANNOYING.
AbscissaAug 4th 2007 4:16PM
I can't wait till the feds trace this back to the RIAA.
AbscissaAug 4th 2007 4:16PM
I can't wait till the feds trace this back to either Sony, the RIAA, or Lars Ulrich.
steveAug 4th 2007 4:17PM
damn you downloadsquad.....your beating me
i only have in the 7000s
well if my music gets deleted ill be devastated
JoshAug 5th 2007 11:33AM
Tom, the ars technica article states "the worm makes its way from computer to computer by spreading itself onto all attached drives of a given PC, including flash drives and removable media. If that media is then removed and inserted into another computer, it continues its music-eating rampage on the new host."
In other words, don't let other people plug their stuff into or map a drive to or from your computer.
JoshAug 5th 2007 11:34AM
Also, I noticed that it's not exactly a major threat. According to Symantec, it's infected less than 50 machines in 2 or less sites.
AverageFuryAug 10th 2007 11:57AM
22.265 files, 1.894 folders
124.124.500.631 bytes
mwahahahaha
AverageFuryAug 10th 2007 11:57AM
22.265 files, 1.894 folders
124.124.500.631 bytes
mwahahahaha