Experts say new computer virus not spreading as quickly

[William Knowles <wk () C4I ORG>]

http://www.techserver.com/noframes/story/0,2294,500206009-500286864-501548005-0,00.html

By PETER SVENSSON, Associated Press

NEW YORK (May 19, 2000 10:17 a.m. EDT http://www.nandotimes.com) - A
new computer virus, said to be both smarter and more destructive than
the global "Love Bug" plague that inspired it, has surfaced but was
not spreading rapidly Friday, according to Internet bug watchers.

The CERT Coordination Center, a government-chartered computer
emergency team at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, reported
that as of 8 a.m. EDT, it had "received no direct reports of
infections related to this virus."

The virus was detected at several large companies late Thursday, said
Dave Perry, spokesman for anti-virus software maker Trend Micro Inc.,
based in Cupertino, Calif. At one company, 5,000 computers were
infected, he said. He would not identify any of the companies
affected.

While the "Love Bug" was given away by the "ILOVEYOU" subject line of
the e-mails that carried it, the new virus changes subject lines every
time it is sent. Also, it destroys most of the files on the computers
it infects, causing potentially catastrophic losses of data.

"Each time the virus spreads, it mutates itself to evade detection,"
Symantec Corp., another Cupertino-based anti-virus software maker,
said in a statement.

The subject line of an infected e-mail starts with "FW: " and includes
the name of a randomly chosen attachment from a previous e-mail on an
infected computer. The e-mail will have an attachment with the same
name, but ending in ".vbs."

Clicking on the attachment will activate the virus. Like "Love Bug,"
it will send itself to everyone in the user's address book. It will
then overwrite most files on the hard drive, rendering the computer
useless until the operating system is reinstalled.

So far, Microsoft's Outlook is the only e-mail program the virus is
attacking, said Anita Chen, a spokeswoman for Trend Micro. Microsoft
has said it will next week make available a modification to Outlook
that will warn users about suspect e-mail attachments.

The size of the virus's attachments are more likely to crash e-mail
servers, experts said. The "Love Bug" had a small attachment, but
crashed e-mail servers all over the world when it sent millions of
copies of itself through the systems at once.

The "Love Bug" spread like an avalanche to millions of computers two
weeks ago. Estimates of the damages caused range up to $10 billion,
and investigators have questioned several people in the Philippines
during the search for the author.

The relatively simple "Love Bug" virus was followed some hours later
by slightly modified variants, posing as jokes or confirmations on
Mother's Day gifts. None of the variants were very widespread.

Trend Micro's Perry said he hoped that increased awareness among
e-mail users would hold back the spread of the new virus.

"Any time a virus hits a week after another virus, its potency is
diminished," he said. "People tend to be a little more cautious."


*-------------------------------------------------*
"Communications without intelligence is noise;
Intelligence without communications is irrelevant."
Gen. Alfred. M. Gray, USMC
---------------------------------------------------
C4I Secure Solutions             http://www.c4i.org
*-------------------------------------------------*

ISN is sponsored by SecurityFocus.com
---
To unsubscribe email LISTSERV () SecurityFocus com with a message body of
"SIGNOFF ISN".