Instant-messaging tool for hackers poses a threat
Instant-messaging tool for hackers poses a threat. CNN Nov 26 2001 3:19PM ET
A new hacking tool using the instant messaging platform Internet Relay Chat (IRC) is rapidly spreading across the Internet and has the potential to shut down Web servers.
Called “Voyager Alpha Force,” the tool has already been used to infect about 300 computers, according to various reports, but its biggest threat lies in its ability to be used in distributed denial-of-service attacks, according to security experts.
“It is a malicious program you download from the Internet. It looks like it’s an IRC bot. Though we don’t have any numbers, and I don’t believe the software has yet been used to bring a Web server down, we do know that it’s gone around quite quickly,” says John Safa, chief technical officer at BitArts, a software security company in the U.K.
Voyager Alpha Force infects computers running Microsoft’s SQL Server database software, allowing rogue software to be sneaked onto computers. In turn that software could then be instructed to send so many requests to a targeted Web server that it shuts down, Safa says.
