MyDoom Worm Spreads Via Search Engines

Internet users are being threatened by yet another variant of the MyDoom mass mailing worm, which is spreading in part by using e-mail addresses found through popular search engines, security experts warn.
The worm proliferates by e-mailing itself through its own SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) engine, according to Sophos. When it infects a computer it scans the hard disk for e-mail addresses and then takes the domains of the addresses it finds and queries search engines such as Google, Yahoo, and Lycos looking for similar addresses, Cluley says.

If it finds the address JohnDoe@yahoo.com, for instance, it will use a search engine to look for other addresses at the yahoo.com domain to send itself to, Cluley explains.

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