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Rukmini Priyadarshini

Bangalore , Aug. 13

THE W32 Blaster Worm, which uses a remote procedure call (RPC) vulnerability to infect vulnerable Windows machines, is spreading rapidly across the Internet.

In fact, the number of infected hosts has more than doubled in 12 hours, prompting security software companies to up the threat to Level 4 by Symantec (Level 5 being the highest) and `Red' Alert by Trend Micro (its highest security threat).

These threat levels are defined based on reported infections, damage potential and distribution potential. Though its effects are expected to be less than that by the infamous Nimda, it is sufficiently serious and is programmed to launch an attack and lead infected machines too to attack the Microsoft Web site on August 16.

Indian corporates too have been reporting infection, according to security experts. ``Increasingly virulent virus attacks can be thwarted in real-time through proactive security,'' said Mr Shams Islam, Security Consultant with Trend Micro. That is, apart from information and policy controls to prevent attacks, it was better to address an attack from the first moment it appears — rather than wait for when it would be time to clear up, he said.

Windows Update Web site lasting until the The Blaster worm that started spreading on Monday has, according to Symantec, affected more than 1,27,000 unique infected hosts. These infected hosts are currently launching probes against Port 135. Security experts suggest administrators apply the appropriate patches supplied by Microsoft, as soon as is feasible, if they have not already done so.

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