In the space of 3 hours on 3rd March 2004, Kaspersky Labs detected 5 new
modifications of notorious malicious programs: Bagle.i and Bagle.j,
Mydoom.f and Mydoom.g, and Netsky.f. The situation is further
complicated by the fact that these programs have already caused mass
infection.

Kaspersky Labs has already released anti-virus database updates offering
protection against these worms. At the same time, the war which has
broken out between three different groups of cyber-criminals, the
authors of Netsky and the authors of Mydoom and Bagle, is particularly
interesting; each new worm modification contains the latest dispatch
from the rival groups, none of which are mincing their words:

"Netsky.C"
we are the skynet - you can't hide yourself! - we kill malware writers
(they have no chance!) - [LaMeRz-->]MyDoom.F is a thief of our idea! -
-< SkyNet AV vs. Malware >- ->->

"Netsky.F"
Skynet AntiVirus -  Bagle - you are a looser!!!!

And, in the answering shots:

"Mydoom.F"
to netsky's creator(s): imho, skynet is a decentralized peer-to-peer
neural network. we have seen P2P in Slapper in Sinit only. they may be
called skynets, but not your shitty app.

"Bagle.I"
Hey, NetSky, fu** off you bi**h, don't ruine our bussiness, wanna start
a war ?

"Bagle.J"
Hey, NetSky, fu** off you bitch!

This exchange of courtesies between virus-writers has undoubtedly
worsened the situation on the Internet, causing a serious
epidemiological incident. Indeed, this latest incident may cause some to
think that the Internet has been irrevocably transformed into an arena
for a bloody battle of the viruses.

"It's hard to imagine a more comical situation: a handful of virus
writers are playing unpunished with the Internet, and not one member of
the Internet community can take decisive action to stop to this
lawlessness," commented Eugene Kaspersky, Head of Anti-Virus Research at
Kaspersky Labs. 'The problem is not that no-one wants to change the
situation, but that the current architecture of the Internet is
completely inconsistent with information security.'

Kaspersky Labs points out that similar incidents will continue to occur
with increasing frequency until effective methods for the prevention,
detection and neutralisation of virus attacks are implemented on the
Internet, with creators of malicious programs being prosecuted. Until
this is done, any attempt to counter-act virus epidemics will be purely
reactive, with unco-ordinated passive defenses failing to significantly
change things for the better.