[Editor's note: Contributor J. Johnson is our manager of Web technology.]

The newest piece of malware on the 'net to make headlines is the obscurely-coined Zotob MS05-039 worm. MS05-039 refers to the Microsoft Security Bulletin issued on August 9, 2005 that announced a vulnerability in the Windows "Plug and Play" code that "could allow remote code execution and elevation of privilege". In other words, the wily attacker could write a program to make an administrator account on a machine without the latest Microsoft security patch, and proceed to turn said machine into a virus-spawning malware drone which then spends all of its energy trying to infect other unpatched machines.

If this B-movie scenario is pretty ho-hum these days to the virus-watching literati, at least the names are becoming more entertaining. For instance,last year's blockbuster virus called itself "Sasser", a perky, in-your-face, taunting name for a bug with lots of personality. Before Sasser, we were treated to the video game-inspired "Blaster" - not an original title, but worthy of the thumbmasters who created it. And who could forget "Mydoom"?

And now, here comes Zotob – a moniker straight from a late ‘50s Ed Wood film. That seems pretty appropriate, given the zombie nature of this beastie. If Zotob could speak, I can just hear its monotone: "I am Zotob. I come from Planet Dnomder. All your plug-and-play are belong to us."

But the sad truth is that all of these viruses are pretty unoriginal. They come, they take over, they infect, they reproduce, they send e-mail, they clog bandwidth. We assume we've been here before, and we know what to do about it. Apply the security patch and get on with life. Or at least is seems like it should be that easy. Of course, there's the little gotcha about laptops, which bounce around between home and corporate networks and are an easy target for infection. By the time they get back on the corporate LAN, it's too late to apply the patch - they've become.... one of THEM.

And apparently, THEY are here to stay. Sure, I know that I may be somewhat less vulnerable to attack if I use a Mac or a Linux computer, but it's not necessarily because those machines have better security. There's also the point of view that most most malware authors target Windows machines in order to grind their particular axe against Microsoft. But think about it: no matter how insanely great Steve Jobs may have made his computers, if Steve dominated the market instead of Bill Gates, he'd be the bigger target. Which means we'd all be patching Tiger this week instead of XP. Maybe.

We really should have seen this one coming. It was alarming to some how quickly Zotob came to life - it's like the attackers had all the body parts stitched together and were just waiting for the lightning strike to bring the monster to life. And that lightning strike came in the form of MS05-039. It's alive....

So here we are, using typewriters to get the news out and mopping up after Zotob, which is Botoz spelled backwards, in case you were wondering. For now, I'm not too worried. Let's hope it's a long time until the malware 'script kiddies' come up with a more devastating scenario. Until then, I'll be happy watching reruns of "Ressas" (which is Sasser spelled backwards, by the way.)