Melissa virus goes global

Published: 31 March 1999 y., Wednesday
MeThe Melissa computer virus, discovered only last Friday,has spread itself by e-mail around the world and is causing havoc for large corporations, according to security experts.It is just a macro virus but it has this additional feature of being able to get around quick.Melissa conceived in sex group Dr Solomon_s VirusPatrol, which checks newsgroups on the Net for developing viruses, discovered Melissa in a sex newsgroup on March 26.The New York Times reported that several major US corporations shut down their mail servers on Friday night as they became overloaded with messages created by the virus.Comments inside the macro virus identify it as "Melissa...by Kwyjibo." Computers become infected when users receive a particular e-mail and open a Word document attached to it.The e-mail is headed: "Important Message From" and contains the sentence: "Here is that document you asked for...don_t show anyone else ;-)." the attachment is usually called list.doc.If the user launches the document, their computer becomes infected, although the worst thing that can happen apparently is if it is launched when the day equals the minute value...such as 29 minutes past on the 29th, the following message appears:
" Twenty-two points, plus triple-word-score, plus fifty points for using all my letters. Game_s over. I_m outta here." When the document attachment is launched, a program is created which replicates the e-mail and sends it to the first 50 addresses in the Global Address Book of users running Microsoft_s Outlook personal organiser. Microsoft, Network Associates and other anti-virus and computer security companies have issued warnings and are supplying fixes for Melissa.
Šaltinis: Internet
Copying, publishing, announcing any information from the News.lt portal without written permission of News.lt editorial office is prohibited.

Facebook Comments

New comment


Captcha

Associated articles

Web Phones Take Wing

Now, cell phones can deliver nifty Net services fast, and Americans are signing up by the millions more »

search.lt news

search.lt presents newest links more »

The Best Internet Portal

Internet Portal Developed by Lithuanians Ranked Best in the USA more »

Europeans Show Strong Interest in 3G

A significant number of Europeans are interested in 3G wireless technology, and half are willing to pay for it more »

Out of Phone Numbers? Add Digits

Someday soon North American telephone numbers might add up to 12 digits, including area code, instead of the current 10 more »

search.lt news

search.lt presents newest links more »

White House Releases Cybersecurity Plan

The Bush administration released a scaled-back cybersecurity strategy outlining steps that the government, industry and citizens should take to protect computer systems from online attacks more »

Microsoft patch can lock users out of Web sites

A recent Microsoft Corp. security patch for Internet Explorer (IE) can lock users out of certain Web sites more »

E-hoard with Microsoft's life database

'Surrogate memory' stores your life on hard disk more »

The fastest market

Lithuania’s Payment Card Market is Growing Fastest in CEE more »