Netsky is a prolific family of
computer worm
A computer worm is a standalone malware computer program that replicates itself in order to spread to other computers. It often uses a computer network to spread itself, relying on security failures on the target computer to access it. It wil ...
s which affect Microsoft Windows operating systems. The first variant appeared on Monday, February 16, 2004. The "B" variant was the first family member to find its way into mass distribution. It appeared on Wednesday, February 18, 2004. 18-year-old
Sven Jaschan
Sven Jaschan (born 29 April 1986) is a former black-hat hacker turned white-hat and a security expert/consultant and creator of the NetSky worms, and Sasser computer worms.
History
Jaschan lived in the village of Waffensen, Germany, and att ...
of
Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
confessed to having written these, and other worms, such as
Sasser.
Although individual functions vary widely from virus to virus, the Netsky family perhaps is most famous for comments contained within the code of its variants insulting the authors of the
Bagle and
Mydoom mydoom also known as, my.doom, W32.MyDoom@mm, Novarg, Mimail.R, Shimgapi, W32/Mydoom@MM, WORM_MYDOOM, Win32.Mydoom is a computer worm affecting Microsoft Windows. It was first sighted on January 26, 2004. It became the fastest-spreading e-mail worm ...
worm families and, in some cases, routines that removed versions of these viruses. The "war" as it was referred to in the media caused a steady increase in the number of variant viruses produced in these families. As of June 2004, Bagle had approximately 28, Netsky approximately 29, and MyDoom approximately 10.
Other symptoms of Netsky included beeping sounds on specified dates, usually in the morning hours.
The worm was sent out as an
e-mail, enticing recipients to open an attachment. Once opened, the attached program would scan the computer for e-mail addresses and e-mail itself to all addresses found.
Until October 2006, the P variant of this virus remained the most prevalent virus being sent in e-mail throughout the world, despite being over two and a half years old. It was surpassed by a variant from the
Stration Stration (also known as Stratio and Warezov) is a family of computer worms that can affect computers running Microsoft Windows, disabling security features and propagating itself to other computers via e-mail attachments. This family of worms is un ...
malware family in November 2006.
Drum and bass musician
Netsky has based his artist name on this computer worm. The idea behind it was that there was a chance people would download the virus if they searched the internet to illegally download his music.
See also
*
Timeline of notable computer viruses and worms
*
Computer virus
A computer virus is a type of computer program that, when executed, replicates itself by modifying other computer programs and inserting its own code. If this replication succeeds, the affected areas are then said to be "infected" with a compu ...
*
Computer worms
*
Sasser (computer worm)
Sasser is a computer worm that affects computers running vulnerable versions of the Microsoft operating systems Windows XP and Windows 2000. Sasser spreads by exploiting the system through a vulnerable Port (computer networking), port. Thus it ...
References
External links
Netsky and Sasser author arrestedNetsky and Sasser author trial
{{Hacking in the 2000s
Email worms
Hacking in the 2000s
2004 in computing