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CENTRAL COMMAND WARNS OF FIRST MAJOR CYBER WAR EMERGING

Central Command, a leading provider of PC anti-virus software and computer security services, announces that the first major global cyber war is emerging. Starting Friday, February 27th, with the release of the C variant of Bagle, a global assault for control of millions of computers is occurring. Three virus writing groups, authors of the Internet worms known as MyDoom, Bagle and Netsky, are battling through cyber space for control of vast dispersed armies of Internet connected computers.

"The short period of time between each new worm release, by the same set of virus writing groups, is real reason for alarm, especially since so many of them have successfully compromised systems worldwide. It's a direct attack on the response times of antivirus companies, a strain on IT professionals, a financial impact on businesses, and appears to be a war over power and seniority among these authors. Unfortunately, the global fight over superiority may result in a victory for the cyber combatants but not for the general Internet user population," said Steven Sundermeier, Vice President of Products and Services at Central Command, Inc.

Since February 27th, the author(s) of the Bagle have release nine separate variants (Worm/Bagle.C-K). Four of these creations have been seen successfully proliferating around the world. Likewise, over the same period of time, the author(s) of the Netsky Internet worm have released three versions of their own (Worm/Netsky.D-F). Netsky's apparent agenda is the disabling of the Bagle and MyDoom worms. The author(s) of MyDoom have responded with the release of MyDoom.G, an updated version that was not disabled by Netsky.

"Obviously, virus writers can't be trusted. So, what might appear as a malicious cat-and-mouse game between virus writing groups may actually be a well-organized cover-up to disguise their true intentions," concluded Sundermeier.

The following text has been extracted from inside the worm's code:

Worm/Bagle.J: Hey, NetSky, off you , don't ruine our bussiness, wanna start a war?

Worm/Bagle.K: Hey, NetSky, off you ! Worm/Netsky.F: Skynet AntiVirus - Bagle - you are a looser!!!! Worm/Netsky.D: be aware!...

Worm/Netsky.C: we are the skynet - you can't hide yourself! - we kill malware ... MyDoom.F is a thief of our idea! ... SkyNet AV vs. Malware

Worm/Mydoom.G & H: to netsky's creator(s): imho, skynet is a decentralized peer-to-peer neural network. we have seen P2P in Slapper in Sinit only. they may be called skynets, but not your app.

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