Atak Worm Variant Linked to al-Qaida

[NeonWizard]

A second variant of the Atak worm, which goes to sleep to avoid detection by antivirus software, has been linked to an al-Qaida sympathizer who once threatened to release a powerful worm if the United States attacked Iraq.

Romanian antivirus company Bitdefender claims the worm's author has signed his nickname into an encrypted part of the worm's code.

Mihai Radu, communications manager at BitDefender, said the virus, discovered Friday, is signed by Melhacker, which is the moniker of a Malaysian-based coder called Vladimor Chamlkovic, who in 2002 threatened to release an "uber-worm" if the United States attacked Iraq.

Mikko Hypponen, director of antivirus research at Finnish company F-Secure, said it is possible that Melhacker wrote Atak.B but that doesn't mean it has anything to do with al-Qaida.

"I think there's no proof anywhere that Melhacker is in any way associated with al-Qaida. He might want to be, though," said Hypponen.

Read Article

[TidaLphasE23]

"However, while a record of a link between the hacker and organized groups has yet to be uncovered, several antivirus companies have found no signature in the Atak.B worm leading to any particular author."

"Vincent Gulotto, the vice president of Santa Clara, Calif.-based McAfee Inc.'s Antivirus and Vulnerability Emergency Response Team (AVERT), said that the company's researchers had not seen any evidence of an author's signature."

"Is it possible it was written by a terrorist? Sure. Is it possible it was written by the guy who plays Mickey Mouse at Disneyland? Sure," he said.

[TheSpecialist]

Bah... I remember this guy used to hang out in VX heavens... his babble about a "uber-worm" and also many many many other things he's said & claimed to have done actually got alot of peaple within and outside the VX scene hateing him. Once agian another worm over hyped.

[hypronix]

Umm you guys would be amazed what coders BitDefender has. And no, I'm not saying it because I'm Romanian... But if I write a virus or a worm and decide to say I did it for president Bush... does that link president Bush to the virus in any way? I think people want to link too many things to a common fear factor... it makes it easier to bear all the 'evil' things in the world.

P.S. al-Qaida and Iraq... last time I was reading into this there was no proved connection between the two. More like, something close to bitter hatred [sprung from religion and ideology]. Is it maybe the new hype of the Middle Eastern world against the Western World?