ExploreZip: another mass-mailer, slightly worse
Another mass-mailing worm has emerged. ExploreZip is similar to Melissa in propagation but materially worse in payload. The trajectory I outlined in March is on schedule, and on the wrong side.
Notes from the field
Writing
Long-form thinking on cyber defence, detection, and resilience — from Slackware-era honeypots through to AI-driven SOC analytics.
Showing posts tagged email security — 4 results.
The week after Melissa: what actually changed
A week after Melissa took down major mail servers, I have spent some time talking to admins who lived through it. The fixes that stuck are smaller than the headlines, and the lessons are mostly about pre-existing assumptions.
Melissa: the macro virus that took out a thousand servers
On Friday, a Word macro virus called Melissa propagated itself by mail to anyone in the recipient's Outlook address book. By Monday, multiple Fortune 500 mail servers were down. A note on the immediate aftermath and what Melissa changes about the threat model.
Happy99 — the first modern email worm
A small fireworks animation arrives in your inbox. It runs. It hooks WSOCK32. From now on, every email you send carries a copy of itself. We have crossed a threshold and most people have not noticed.