In its original form, Mydoom, the virus, was written to perform a Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack on the SCO Group’s website. A DDoS attack uses many computers to send an excessive amount of traffic to a web server. This virus was so successful that the SCO Group had to create another website, because people were unable to get to its usual website. What was behind this attack?
In the late 1960s, AT&T developed an operating system(OS) called Unix. This proved to be very popular with universities, which might explain, why, in the 1990s, Linus Torvalds began working on, what is known, as Linux.
During the 1980s, IBM acquired rights to use Unix from AT&T. In 1993 AT&T sold Unix to Novell, who sold it to SCO in 1995. A company called Caldera (now the SCO Group) later acquired the rights to Unix, from the original SCO company (now Tarantella).
As the popularity of Linux grew, Unix’s waned. This, of course, had a negative effect on any company selling a version of Unix. In the 1990s, IBM started to market its own version of Linux.
One reason Linux is popular, is because it’s an open system. This means that, not only is the OS free, although you may have pay for a distribution of it, but also, all the Linux system code is available to anyone. Users can then make any changes they like, as long as they make these changes available to everyone else.
In 2003 the SCO Group dropped a bombshell, it announced that it was suing IBM for US$1 billion+, because of, misappropriation of trade secrets, tortious interference, unfair competition, and breach of contract. They also claim about 1 million lines of Linux code were “stolen” from its copyrighted Unix system. Next, they announced, that licences to use Linux, with this code, would be required, at an appropriate charge.
It didn’t take long for this all to turn messy. IBM is counter suing SCO Group, Novell is claiming it owns Unix, and SCO Group is suing Novell. Meanwhile, SCO Group still have to announce what code has been misappropriated, so that their claims can be verified.
With all these court cases, the only people getting rich, are the lawyers. SCO Group’s legal bill is reaching US$9 million. Of course, the licence fees will cover this quite nicely. It is estimated that Massey University will have to pay NZ$171,192.61, and Weta NZ$2,594,532.85. That is, of course, if anyone pays. Legal advice is not to pay.
Apart from companies using Linux, there is an enthusiastic bunch of home users. Unfortunately, among their number are some that feel taking, direct, unlawful, action is going to stop SCO Group. One of them may have gone to far by writing the Mydoom virus.
Hopefully, your PC was protected by a virus scanner. Check the list on the eStuff web site.
Correction
Please that the statement “In the 1990s, IBM started to market its own version of Linux” is incorrect.
IBM doesn’t produce or market it’s own Linux version. They partner mainly with RedHat or SuSE, however they will partner with others, if the customer requires it, and do not promote one ‘flavour’ of Linux as their own version.
