MyDoom Virus Shuts Down SCO Server

Denial-of-service attacks against the SCO Group Inc. servers beginning Feb. 1 were as damaging as had been feared.

Corporate Web servers at SCO went down Sunday as computers infected with the MyDoom worm began assaults on the SCO site earlier than anticipated - beginning at 17:30 Greenwich Mean Time on Saturday (Jan. 31), rather than on Sunday as originally expected.

The mi2g Intelligence Unit security group in London estimated Sunday that the MyDoom worm had caused $38.5 billion in economic damages worldwide, making it the most expensive computer virus ever. The SoBig virus was estimated to have caused $37.1 billion in damages.

D.K. Matai, executive chairman of mi2g, said the success of MyDoom, despite a week's worth of advance knowledge and the involvement of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security in issuing virus alerts, showed how easily a genuine cyber-terror hostile attack could be launched and sustained.