Autor: Dariusz (teletext_at_poczta.onet.pl)
Data: Thu 04 May 2000 - 18:14:26 MET DST
Uwazajcie na wirus I love przesylany z e-mail
______________________________________________
`I Love You' Virus Attacks Computer Systems
Worldwide (Update2)
By Colleen McElroy
London, May 4 (Bloomberg) -- A computer virus that
is
transmitted via e-mail with the greeting ``I love
you'' is forcing
the shutdown of computer systems at big companies
such as Ford
Motor Co., as well as Britain's House of Commons in
London.
Ford said 125,000 of its workers are affected as the
automaker closed its e-mail system worldwide. Others
affected
include Merrill Lynch & Co., Dow Chemical Co. and
Cox
Communications Inc. The virus is spread by inviting
recipients to
open an e-mail that appears to be a love letter.
Some companies said they received virus-tainted
e-mails at
the rate of several per minute. The virus is capable
of deleting
files and may attempt to change a user's Internet
browser set-up.
``It was like a nightmare,'' said Stella Dinevics, a
secretary in the London office of Fitness Holdings
Inc., a
Pleasanton, California-based chain of fitness
centers, who
triggered the virus when she opened an e-mail
addressed to her
boss. ``It sent hundreds and hundreds of e-mails. We
had to shut
down the server for a half hour to be able to delete
the
messages.''
There have been several previous episodes of
high-profile
viruses infecting computers worldwide in the past
year, including
the Melissa virus, one known as Chernobyl and
WormExplore.Zip.
Today's virus affected some shares in the U.S. The
stock of
Symantec Corp., a maker of software that protects
computers
against viruses, rose 2 3/8 to 60 7/8 in late
morning trading.
The virus, which may have originated in the
Philippines, has
affected as much as 10 percent of British businesses
and could
cause the loss of millions of pounds, Agence
France-Presse
reported.
``It begins overwriting some of the recipients'
computer
files,'' said Simon Perry, vice president of
security at Computer
Associates. ``Plus, it creates a back door so the
virus creator
can get into the computer later at any time.''
Companies whose computers are infected by a virus
probably
will have to spend several days cleaning their
systems because it
can spread within networks, analysts have said.
The virus's e-mail reads: ``Please look at this love
note
that I've sent you.'' The virus will then send
itself to everyone
that is in the address book of the recipient.
Similar to Melissa Virus
The so-called Love Letter worm virus appears to be
spreading
as rapidly as the Melissa virus did, said Symantec
Corp., the
maker of anti-virus software.
It apparently originated in Hong Kong late yesterday
afternoon and spread west as people logged on to
their e-mail,
Symantec said. Asia and Europe have been hit heavily
and then it
hit the U.S. East Coast this morning and appears to
be moving
west.
What makes this virus possibly more potent than
Melissa is
that with Melissa, the e-mail is sent to the first
100 people in
Microsoft's Outlook e-mail program address book.
With the Love
Letter virus, an infected e-mail is sent to all the
addresses.
The e-mail has ``ILOVEYOU'' on the subject line.
There's an
attachment to the e-mail that reads:
LOVE-LETTER-FOR-YOU.TXT.vbs
If you don't click on the attachment, you don't get
infected and
don't spread it to others, Symantec said.
The company's Symantec AntiVirus Research Center has
been
fielding calls from companies that have been
infected. Symantec
said it has a ``hot fix'' that is available for
corporations and
that later they will have a general fix posted on
their web site
for those who use the company's anti-virus program.
The U.S. government is spending millions of dollars
on
Internet security to protect U.S. online networks
from the threat
posed by hostile nations, Jeffery Hunker of the
National Security
Council said last month.
To archiwum zostało wygenerowane przez hypermail 2.1.7 : Tue 18 May 2004 - 20:05:58 MET DST