'ILOVEYOU', 'ILOVEYOU' not: other newfound computer viruses

[William Knowles <wk () C4I ORG>]

http://www.techserver.com/noframes/story/0,2294,500201388-500278198-501473581-1,00.html

By LISA HOFFMAN, Scripps Howard News Service

WASHINGTON (May 7, 2000 1:36 p.m. EDT http://www.nandotimes.com) -
Conservative estimates put the number of computer viruses now in
circulation at 50,000.

In April alone, the federal government outfit that keeps track of
these cyber-scourges registered 32 attacks by viruses or other
computer infections. The Federal Computer Incident Response Capability
unit, or FedCIRC, counted 400,057 computer systems affected by the
invasions.

Of the attacks, 24 involved viruses never before detected, according
to government and business security experts. Unlike the rapacious
'lovebug' and its mutations that disrupted e-mail systems around the
globe this week, most of the others were relatively benign, but still
able to cause headaches and hassles for computer users.

Here's a look at some of the viruses detected in April and so far in
May:

W97M/Concon - Discovered Monday May 1. A bug that infects Microsoft
Word documents and templates and makes the Microsoft Windows operating
system crash on the 31st day of any month.

Internet Flower Hoax - Discovered April 27. Spread by e-mail message
"An Internet flower for you." If opened, a virus will kill all the
computer's "dynamic link libraries," or software files that programs
share.

Wscript/KillMBR - Discovered April 27. Inserts a code in Windows
operating systems that signals an error, and can shut down your
computer and keep it from being started up again.

Haktek - Discovered April 24. Attacks by flooding e-mail addresses
with thousands of messages, which then can overwhelm computer servers.

K-031/911 Worm. Discovered April 1. Infects computers via e-mail, and
can destroy an array of data. Also can send personal information about
you to an unknown address.


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