Chapter 442 - Panda Burning Incenses multiple variants! (2/2)
Dong Zhiqiang symbolically cautioned, ”Watch what you say, Little Fang. Remember which side you are on.”
”Yes, sir.” Fang Xiaoshui smiled cheekily.
Zhang Ye, who was behind them, was listening to everything that they were saying. He did not react or interrupt and just smiled as he continued busying himself with his 'work'. He furiously tapped away at his keyboard doing something unknown.
......
Korea.
The Malware Protection Center issued a red alert for the third time! A new variant of the Panda Burning Incense had started spreading and could not be stopped by the kill tool! Even the updated virus definitions could not prevent an infection as the Korean Malware Protection Center scrambled to issue the warning to remind Korean citizens not to open any suspicious email attachments or download any files from unknown sources! They also announced the file name that the virus used!
But that warning had come too late!
Countless people had already been tricked!
On the Korean internet, thousands and thousands of people posted in anger!
”It's that panda again!”
”c.r.a.p! My new computer's infected again!”
”Why can't it be killed?”
”What is the Malware Protection Center doing?”
”Didn't they already find the prevention method and make a kill tool for it? Why is it not working? The virus definitions were only updated a short while ago, but the virus was able to infect our systems again?”
”The virus definitions are working fine, but that was only against the first version of Panda Burning Incense. The new variants need to be cracked again, so please wait for a while everyone. We need to trust our programmers. With experience from the previous strain, they should be able to come up with a kill tool very quickly. Even if it's a variant, it's still that same Panda Burning Incense. There should definitely be some common source code that they share. That would help to make the research into cracking it much easier! I do not believe that we can't eradicate this virus once and for all. Be patient and wait for a bit, our people will surely solve this!”
”This is so terrible!”
”It's too wicked, I thought that Song Jimi's nude photos had really been leaked!”
”How can that hacker '2' from China even be considered world cla.s.s! That b.a.s.t.a.r.d is just a hooligan! Does he even have the dignity and ethics of a top cla.s.s hacker? Big liar!”
”My computer is dead! One year's worth of work went down the drain!”
”We need to fight China till the very end! F**k! I'm not finished with them!”
”Right, we need to duke it out with them all the way!”
”When the variant's kill tool is out, I will go and scold them until they die!”
Less than an hour after having just resolved the catastrophic risk of Panda Burning Incense, the Panda had once again swept through Korea. This was something that no one expected!
......
Korea.
Malware Protection Center.
In a certain research department.
A person scolded, ”The new variant's source code has actually changed since the original? To crack this new variant now would require us to start from scratch!”
Another person said, ”We have only just found a way to crack it and updated the virus database, but he already created a new one? How can he be so fast, did he plan this in advance? Was it aimed at us? This is obviously provocation! Everyone, research the new variant with utmost urgency! We need to crack it within two hours! Then we have to update the virus database as soon as possible, otherwise it will be increasingly difficult to control the number of infected systems!”
A middle aged person said, ”It's already out of control. I have news here that says the number of infected systems has already reached to 800,000!”
A woman said, ”The numbers are s...o...b..lling!”
The person-in-charge said, ”Stop talking and concentrate. We need to crack it fast! The deadline has already been set by management! We only have two hours! Hurry!”
800,000!
900,000!
1 million!
The number of infected systems increased exponentially!
The reason for this large number of infections was partially due to the release of the kill tool by the Korean authorities. Everyone had lowered their guard after they knew that the virus had been cracked. They thought that even if they got infected, it wouldn't matter since there was a kill tool available now. Perhaps because of this att.i.tude, it allowed the Panda Burning Incense virus to take off and spread even faster than expected. This spread was very alarming and could no longer be controlled!
The number of infected systems were currently held back and not announced by the Korean authorities. They knew that if this number was announced, it would cause too much confusion and sensationalism, but this expedient measure could not be held back for long and the only way now was to quickly create a countermeasure for this virus, so that everything else could be brought under control. They needed to stop the spread!
However, after another ten minutes, the Korean Malware Protection Center and anti-virus companies were plunged into yet another crisis!
It was not that the Panda Burning Incense variant couldn't be cracked since they already had the experience from the original virus. Even though the source code was different, there were still similarities. They only needed a little more time before they could crack it and develop a kill tool. What really surprised them was — The second new variant of the Panda Burning Incense had appeared!
The difference between the second new variant and the previous variant was that the second variant was much more terrifying! This second variant, after being tested by the Malware Protection Center was shown to be able to prevent anti-virus softwares from updating their virus definitions. It could even block most anti-virus softwares and disable certain functionalities of the firewall!
Following that!
A third variant appeared —This time, it was a Panda Burning Incense that could corrupt doc.u.ment files. It was another new feature that made it not only target .exe files!
Five minutes later, the 4th variant had made its way around Korea!
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