eclectica
2004-02-09, 11:05
http://thescogroup.com/images/sco_logo_blue.gif
In the 1970s, AT&T created Unix. Ownership of Unix first passed to Novell, and then to SCO in 1995. SCO is a relatively small company located in Utah, with Darl McBride as its CEO.
SCO sued IBM in March 2003, claiming that the company purposefully undermined Unix and took parts of the Unix code to be added to Linux. Linux is a free, open source operating system. While their lawsuit was limited against IBM, the broader action behind it was a strike against Linux. Linux is perceived to be a threat by both SCO and Microsoft.
The MyDoom worm was discovered on January 26 2004. It caused infected computers to launch Denial of Service attacks on the SCO website (http://www.sco.com/) between February 1 to February 12. SCO decided to wait until February 1 to see what impact the DoS attacks would have on their site. They then gave up and moved their site to a second location, thescogroup.com (http://www.thescogroup.com)
SCO announced a quarter million dollar reward for information leading to the conviction of the author of the MyDoom worm. The problem is, that even if the author is found, he may never be convicted. This is because virus/worm writing is not illegal itself, and is often done for scholarly means without malicious intent.
Attacks or hacking of specific websites of companies probably have the intended effect of humiliating them more than anything else. Hackers usually want to get a point across or to demonstrate a security vulnerability. Their work is a type of internet terrorism, by using brute force. The terrorism that hackers create on the internet is more palatable than offline terrorism. No one dies, and the ability to conduct precise strikes against targets without collateral damage is there.
SCO should be happy that the worm was set to launch DoS attacks against their website for only 12 days. From a business perspective, the posting of the quarter million dollar bounty makes little sense. The damage has been done already, and it only makes them look like bigger losers. It shows how deep their arrogance and foolish pride runs, and that is the reason they were attacked in the first place.
In the 1970s, AT&T created Unix. Ownership of Unix first passed to Novell, and then to SCO in 1995. SCO is a relatively small company located in Utah, with Darl McBride as its CEO.
SCO sued IBM in March 2003, claiming that the company purposefully undermined Unix and took parts of the Unix code to be added to Linux. Linux is a free, open source operating system. While their lawsuit was limited against IBM, the broader action behind it was a strike against Linux. Linux is perceived to be a threat by both SCO and Microsoft.
The MyDoom worm was discovered on January 26 2004. It caused infected computers to launch Denial of Service attacks on the SCO website (http://www.sco.com/) between February 1 to February 12. SCO decided to wait until February 1 to see what impact the DoS attacks would have on their site. They then gave up and moved their site to a second location, thescogroup.com (http://www.thescogroup.com)
SCO announced a quarter million dollar reward for information leading to the conviction of the author of the MyDoom worm. The problem is, that even if the author is found, he may never be convicted. This is because virus/worm writing is not illegal itself, and is often done for scholarly means without malicious intent.
Attacks or hacking of specific websites of companies probably have the intended effect of humiliating them more than anything else. Hackers usually want to get a point across or to demonstrate a security vulnerability. Their work is a type of internet terrorism, by using brute force. The terrorism that hackers create on the internet is more palatable than offline terrorism. No one dies, and the ability to conduct precise strikes against targets without collateral damage is there.
SCO should be happy that the worm was set to launch DoS attacks against their website for only 12 days. From a business perspective, the posting of the quarter million dollar bounty makes little sense. The damage has been done already, and it only makes them look like bigger losers. It shows how deep their arrogance and foolish pride runs, and that is the reason they were attacked in the first place.