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Wed January 21, 2004 11:41 AM ET
By Bernhard Warner,
European Internet Correspondent
LONDON (Reuters) - Anti-virus technicians said on Wednesday that Bagle, the latest e-mail virus to hit global computer users, was in decline and no longer considered a major threat.
But as the contagion runs its course, some anti-virus technicians are asking whether there might be a better way of naming such viruses so as to alert the public.
Since emerging on Sunday, Bagle has been something of a mystery. Computer security experts first called it Beagle after pulling the reference from a line of code found in the malicious program.
Later, it was given the name Bagle, a misspelled version of the doughnut-shaped roll. To the virus-weary public, warnings about a malicious bagel drew more questions than normal.
Personally, I would have called it beagle rather than bagle, for the sole purpose of avoiding all these support calls asking: 'why did you call it bagle?,' said Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant for Sophos, a UK-based software firm specializing in anti-virus and anti-spam detection.
Agreeing on a single, easily identifiable name is a crucial step in the virus alert process. Quickly publicizing the existence of a new outbreak and developing a prescribed fix are vital to stopping worms and viruses in their tracks.
But despite the technical expertise that goes into identifying an outbreak and a remedy, the process of naming a virus is hardly scientific.
In the past, digital vermin have been named after favorite lunch dishes, friends, or plucked from the words or phrases found in the code by anti-virus technicians. Sometimes, the words are jumbled as with Nimda, backwards for admin.
As a result, computer users have been urged to brace themselves against such notorious contagions as Slammer and Goner. And they have been advised not to be fooled by the infamous Love Bug or click on Anna Kournikova.
With hundreds of new outbreaks emerging each month, new monikers are in short supply, experts say.
For this reason, some have suggested anti-virus firms devise a naming procedure like national weather services, which have agreed on a long alphabetical list of names for hurricanes years before they form.
What I would like to see is everybody using the same naming scheme, said Alex Shipp, senior anti-virus technologist with MessageLabs, a UK-based e-mail virus detection firm.
It's confusing if you think your anti-virus software has you protected against one virus and then you hear on the radio it's called something else, Shipp said.
But getting virus technicians to agree is no small feat.
I'm afraid it's never going to happen, Cluley said of developing an industry-wide naming practice. These virus outbreaks travel around the world in minutes. If you have a hurricane coming at you, you have a few hours to agree.
Source: Reuters
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