OT - 'I Love You' E-Mail Virus Attacks Computer Systems World-Wide
Fast-Moving Virus Attacks Picture, Music Files;
Some Firms Stop Spread by Taking Down E-Mail
A computer virus carried by e-mail messages bearing the title "I Love You" quickly spread around the world Thursday, wiping out important computer files and forcing large corporations to shut down their e-mail systems.
Japanese investment bank Nomura, and telephone firms Cable & Wireless PLC and British Telecommunications PLC were among the major companies to have had their computers infected by the virus. On Wall Street, investment banks took drastic steps early Thursday to stop the virus in its tracks.
White House Spokesman Jake Siewert said the White House computer systems are unaffected by the virus but there are reports coming in from various federal agencies that the virus is cropping up there.
The Love Letter virus, which is transmitted by e-mail, can locate and wipe out picture and music files on a recipient's computer. The virus also can change a user's Web browser settings, automatically sending a user to a site from which the virus is downloaded, once the user boots up the browser and logs on to the Internet.
Finnish computer security firm F-Secure Corp. says that more than 1,000 clients around the world have contacted it about the virus since 7 a.m. GMT (2 a.m. EDT) Thursday morning. And more than 100,000 of its clients' machines had been infected, the security firm said.
"At one big media company all the picture archives for the past two years have been deleted," said Mikko Hypponen, manager of antivirus research at F-Secure in Espoo, Finland.
Fastest-Spreading Ever?
Mr. Hypponen says that the Love Letter virus seems to be replicating much faster than the infamous Melissa virus, which spread around the world in March of 1999. He predicts that the virus will wreak havoc Thursday and Friday, "But we estimate the situation will be calmed down by Monday," he added.
Much like the Melissa virus, which tied up global e-mail systems last year, the I Love You virus targets users of Microsoft Corp.'s Outlook e-mail program. Hidden in an e-mail attachment, the worm virus replicates if the message is opened and prompts Outlook to send infected messages to every user in the mail program's address book.
The virus then searches for music and picture files on the users' hard disk and overwrites them.
"It's not pretty," said Ross Wilson, the Singapore-based Southeast Asia director of Symantec Corp., a U.S.-based company that makes antivirus software. "It's got the capability of spreading very, very quickly."
Many experts believe the virus originated in the Philippines, because the word "Manila" is included in the original e-mail. The original message comes from the e-mail address ispyder@mail.com. It also declares "I hate to go to school." SNIP....
Jim |
