Kaza and eDonkey brace for attack from Netsky

The Netsky worm is due to launch a DDoS attack on file-sharing sites such as Kazaa and eDonkey on Wednesday morning. File-sharing Web sites Kazaa and eDonkey are bracing for a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack starting on Wednesday that will be launched by a clutch of new variants of the Netsky worm. Netsky.Q, which first appeared on 29 March, is designed to attack various Web sites that distribute either file-sharing clients or hacking and cracking tools. Kazaa and eDonkey are its best-known targets and the attack is scheduled to last for six days. However, they will get only a short break because Netsky.T, which was discovered on Tuesday, will launch a new DDoS attack from 14 April. This attack is scheduled to last for 10 days.

Mikko Hyppönen, director of antivirus research at F-Secure, said he expects the targets to fair badly because they are relatively small companies that will not have the necessary infrastructure to survive a large DDoS attack: "Netsky is widespread, so I wouldn't be surprised if the sites collapse under the load," he said.

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