First Windows Vista Virus

Who knew it would come so soon? Only about a week after Windows Vista Beta 1 was released, a virus appeared that exploited the Monad command shell included in the Windows Vista beta. Monad is similar to MS-DOS and allows powerful text-based commands to be executed. The virus doesn’t appear to be disruptive, but rather seems to be a proof-of-concept virus (viruses that allow the writer to test new methods of exploitation). For more information on the Danom virus family (“Danom” being “Monad” in reverse), check out this PCWorld article.