Since Viruswriter started a worm war (see https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=23569;start=msg139438#msg139438_, let us be the judges. Just pick your favourite (perhaps I misclassified or forgot a worm or two, sorry...)
Me thinks it more of the later. Only ignorant,dumb people or careless people get infected with mass mailing worms.
Don't you mean Swen? http://securityresponse.symantec.com/avcenter/venc/data/w32.swen.a@mm.html Blaster is an internet borne worm that uses open ports on unpatched PC's to infect them. url repaired==gigc
I would have to say blaster even though it used unpatched machines to infect it was very succesful. It was the only true infection I have ever had. I did a full format and restore and before I could update my av or firewall it got me twice in ten minutes. I am glad it is really easy to get rid of.
I think I may have fit in one of those categories. I vote Klez since it got me via hotmail. My son and I were reading an email that he got in hotmail. It was an ad that he had a question about. I told him it was junk and delete it. He deleted it and hotmail automatically opened the next email. Lo and behold, worm time (and no spice). We don't normally deleted open hotmail emails since it opens the next one, but we did that time. We're more careful now!
Hmm, Why doesn't deleting an attachment in hotmail automatically open the next attachment? Even if this is so , it's poor design in hotmail and not the creativity of klez
For clarity, I hit delete on an opened email with an attachment. When hotmail deleted it, it automatically opened the next email and attachment. There was also a hotlink in the email, if that made a difference. I really don't understand the workings of how that happened. I wrote MSN about what had happened. Of course, it can't happen although it did. And, of course, they told me that McAfee would have caught it............but it didn't!