Will Your PC Call 911?

Antivirus Vendors Fight Back

For the best information on how to deal with this risk, check your antivirus software maker's Web site.

Major antivirus software makers, such as McAfee and Symantec/Norton, reported on Monday that they have already included protection against BAT.Chode.Worm in their software updates, which are available for download immediately from the company Web sites or through the update features of antivirus software.

Currently, antivirus vendors are suggesting that to find out if your PC has been infected, you need to search for three hidden directories created by BAT.Chode.Worm. They're named \chode, \foreskin, and \dickhair. (By default, Windows Explorer doesn't display hidden files or directories. To search for the BAT.Chode.Worm hidden directories, you need to enable Hidden File Display in Windows Explorer by right-clicking a drive or directory, choosing Properties, and checking the box in front of "Hidden.")

For users without antivirus software, a quick way to protect against infection is to make sure file sharing is turned off. To do this, right click on the Network Neighborhood icon, choose Properties, click on the large File and Printer Sharing button in the middle of the screen, and make sure "I want to give others access to my files" is not checked.

Fighting Fire With Firewalls

This procedure, however, offers only minimal protection. To give more complete protection against BAT.Chode.Worm and other worms, your PC should be equipped with a firewall such as Norton Internet Protection, Network ICE's BlackICE Defender, or Zone Labs' Zone Alarm. You can also check how secure your PC is by connecting to Gibson Research's Shields Up Web site (see links at right.)

Computer security experts say that the because of the childish obscenity used in BAT.Chode.Worm, and the fact that it also destroys other worms if it finds them on your PC, it bears all the marks of being created by an adolescent. They point out that it's increasingly easy for relatively unsophisticated hackers to create malicious code using tools that are widely available on the Internet.