Gathering 'Storm' Superworm Poses Grave Threat to PC Nets

The Storm worm first appeared at the beginning of the year, hiding in e-mail attachments with the subject line: "230 dead as storm batters Europe." Those who opened the attachment became infected, their computers joining an ever-growing botnet.

Although it's most commonly called a worm, Storm is really more: a worm, a Trojan horse and a bot all rolled into one. It's also the most successful example we have of a new breed of worm, and I've seen estimates that between 1 million and 50 million computers have been infected worldwide.

Old style worms -- Sasser, Slammer, Nimda -- were written by hackers looking for fame. They spread as quickly as possible (Slammer infected 75,000 computers in 10 minutes) and garnered a lot of notice in the process. The onslaught made it easier for security experts to detect the attack, but required a quick response by antivirus companies, sysadmins and users hoping to contain it. Think of this type of worm as an infectious disease that shows immediate symptoms.

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E-mails containing malicious PDF files have been putting computers at risk since Friday, Finnish security software firm F-Secure said on Saturday.

"The e-mails sent in bulk looked like credit card statements, and contained an attachment called 'report.pdf'," its Chief Research Officer Mikko Hypponen said in a statement.

When such PDF files are viewed on vulnerable machines, they start downloading software from servers in Malaysia or Sweden, which are now being cleaned, he said. "There will be more such attacks."

"We are worried about this case, as PDF attachments are typically not filtered at e-mail gateways."

A security update for Adobe Acrobat Reader, which opens PDF files, was made available a few days ago, but many users have not updated the program yet, Hypponen said.

Small business blogging Benefits:

The Bottom Line

A blog is likely to help your small business grow if you use it well.

10 Key Benefits of Small Business Blogs

Here are 10 of the most significant benefits of small business blogging. Some of these benefits overlap.

1. Increase profit. You can significantly raise revenue at little expense with a business blog.


2. Increase targeted website traffic. Targeted traffic means people who are likely to be interested in your company. Blogs make it easy for those people to find your business.

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Conversion Central: 101 Tools to Convert Video, Music, Images, PDF and More

Posted on September 5, 2007 by Yoav Ezer
Filed Under Productivity, Series, Microsoft, Excel, PDF

Few things are more irritating than having to deal with a format that is incompatible with what you need it to do. It doesn’t matter if it’s a media file, document, or shoe size; it’s just plain frustrating. To make your life easier, check out this list of 101 tools that will allow you to convert just about anything.

Mega Tools

There are lots of specialized tools out there, but sometimes you just need one good tool to get the job done. These mega tools are great for general conversions.

1. Zamzar: Zamzar does all sorts of conversions, ranging from documents and images to music and video. In addition to its versatility, this tool boasts the ability to do all of your conversions without downloading software.
2. SUPER: This aptly-named tool offers a simple and efficient way to convert any multimedia file to any format you need. You won’t need to download any additional codecs or deal with any time or function limitations.
3. CZ Document Converter: CZ Document Converter is a powerful batch document converter. It supports every popular document file you may need, including PDF, HTML, DOC, XLS, and WPS.
4. Media Convert: This tool is another great all-around converter. It can take files from your computer or a webserver and convert them into pretty much any format. The tool is web based and full of versatility.


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1. Keep it clean. Any hardware geek will tell you that dust, dirt, grime and funk keep a computer from running peak. And any hardware geek with a shred of pride will show you a computer case clean enough to eat out of. Dust impedes fans. Dirt creates a thermal layer that makes things overheat. Grime blocks connections. (No joke: I’ve seen computers “magically” start working again just by cleaning dust from the case and motherboard.)


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Happy Birthday, ENIAC! This year marks 60 years since ENIAC launched the world into the Computing Age. Today, it is difficult to imagine how we could manage without the myriad electronic devices that we utilize each day. From our cell phones, PDAs, and cameras to our automobiles, airplanes, medical equipment and devices, electronics is the engine driving us forward. And it was here at the University of Pennsylvania that it all began.

The School of Engineering and Applied Science is proud to have four of the original 40 panels of the ENIAC. The artifacts on display represent approximately 1/10th of its original size. It was announced on February 14th, 1946.

To celebrate ENIACs birthday, we have provided an opportunity for you to use the ENIAC simulator online by visiting http://page.mi.fu-berlin.de/~zoppke/D, or here to read the abstract on the workings of the ENIAC simulator.

You can also read a recently released Interview with Presper Eckert from Computer World.