Weeding out Wi-Fi worm rumors

A report is making the rounds that a new worm is spreading via Wi-Fi as opposed to the Internet. The warning issued on blog site LiveJournal notes it appears to be affecting computers running unpatched versions of Windows XP and has hit mainly in the New Jersey area.

SANS Internet Storm Center, which tracks viruses, also noted the potential threat, but cautioned it's still in the rumor stage, given it has not yet received the binary code it test for the potential worm.

While viruses have been known to attack specific Wi-Fi access points, or situations have emerged where malicious attackers have created bogus Wi-Fi access points, it has yet to be seen where Wi-Fi worms have emerged in the wild, said Johannes Ullrich, Sans Institute chief research officer.

All that may change should this Wi-Fi rumor pan out.