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JANUARY 29, 2004
By Stephen H. Wildstrom The Useless Hysteria over Mydoom Conspiracy theories from SCO and the open-source community over who or what is behind the nasty virus aren't helping make the Net safer In addition to snarling networks and clogging e-mail systems around the world, the virus variously known as Mydoom and NovaRG set off a fierce and sometimes absurd argument over who was responsible for the assault, which began on Jan. 26 (see BW Online, 1/28/04, "Mydoom's Most Damning Dynamic"). The strange behavior was triggered by the fact that infected machines are programmed to launch a denial-of-service attack on the Web site of SCO Group (SCOX ), a Lindon (Utah) company that claims to own the intellectual property on which the open-source Linux operating system is based and which finds itself in a war with the fervent open-source community (see BW, 2/2/04, "The Most Hated Company in Tech"). Since SCO was targeted, the logic of both the company and its opponents seems to run, the virus must be the work of someone with a stake in the case. It's time for everyone to take a deep breath. The fact is that nothing is known about the perpetrator. Antivirus researcher MessageLabs says the virus first showed up in Russia, but that doesn't necessarily mean it was written there. The only clue to the writer's identity was the line "sync-1.01; andy; I'm just doing my job, nothing personal, sorry," buried in the code. The motivation was further muddied when a variant appeared on Jan. 28 that targeted Microsoft (MSFT ) Web sites as well as SCO's. "A TAD CONVENIENT." Ignorance hasn't stopped anyone from speculating, however. SCO limited its charges to a bit of innuendo. "We do not know the origins or reasons for this attack, although we have our suspicions," said CEO Darl McBride in a statement. "This is criminal activity, and it must be stopped. To this end, SCO is offering a total of $250,000 in rewards for information leading to the arrest and conviction of those responsible for this crime." Calls to SCO to get further comment hadn't been returned as of this story's publication. Open-source advocates, many of whom have a fondness for conspiracy theories, were far less restrained. Slashdot.org, a favorite online hangout of the open-sourcers, attracted dozens of posts speculating on possible SCO involvement in an attack on itself. A poster identified as Dukeofshadows noted that the publicity stemming from an attack for which the open-source community could be blamed might give SCO credibility. "The timing and blatant attack pointing to SCO seem a tad convenient to me," Dukeofshadows wrote. "Who else stands to benefit from a virus like this getting caught at this stage?" But Bruce Perens, open-source guru and consultant, took the argument over the top in an article posted on his own Web site. After speculating that either spammers (angry at open-source efforts to fight junk e-mail) or SCO itself might be responsible for the virus, he wrote: "SCO also has a reason to defame us, as part of their stock-kiting scheme. We have assembled ample evidence that they have lied under oath in court. Such a company would not balk at attacking their own site in order to paint their opponents in a bad light. "Thus, it is likely that this virus has been assembled for the purpose of defaming the Linux developers by spammers, SCO, or others. Your behavior will influence whether or not it succeeds in this mission." TOP PRIORITY. That's a lot of charges with not much of anything to back them up. Antivirus experts, who admit that they have next to nothing to go on, suspect the author was an open-source supporter possessed of more zeal than sense. But, they say, unless the author does something foolish like brag about the exploit, the odds against identifying the perpetrator are overwhelming. The Mydoom attack was the latest in a series of serious assaults on the Internet, and the top priority right now is cleaning up the damage and trying to prevent the next attack. A lot of overheated speculation about who did what and why accomplishes nothing.  Wildstrom is Technology & You columnist for BusinessWeek
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