Risk: Low
The unknown authors of the latest variant of the MyDoom email worm have embedded a hidden message inside their code, asking for a job in the anti-virus industry.
Like previous variants, the MyDoom-U and MyDoom-V worms spread via email with a malicious attachment. Opening the attachment results in the activation of the worm and an attempt to download a backdoor Trojan horse called Surila onto infected machines.
Hidden inside these worms' code is a message that states, "We searching 4 work in AV industry". No contact details and any other information is appended to the curious message. Neither of the new variants is spreading in large numbers since their appearance on the Net on September 9 2004.
BitDefender, a Romanian AV company, offered a couple of theories to the message. "It seems the virus writing business simply isn't that profitable anymore due to the efforts of AV researchers, or else the person or persons behind Bagle really are winning the much-hyped "war of words and worms", it said.
Aside from ethical considerations, AV companies reckon the skills needed to write computer viruses are far removed from those needed to write reliable AV software.
The practice of virus writers posting appeals for work in malicious code is rare but not unprecedented. Michael Buen, a suspect in the Love Bug case, included his CV in a Word macro virus he produced, called Michael-B. Unfortunately for Buen, neither the virus nor his CV spread very far.