Today I received an "I LOVE YOU" message, purportedly from one of the
local CBS television affiliates.
Luckily I use Arachne, and Arachne doesn't have any idea what to do with
a .vrs file. Apparently dozeware does.
This one is bad; CBS website has this to say:
CBS.com--Internet 'Love' Bug Hits Computers Arachne 1.61
http://www.wkrc.com/now/story/0,1597,191800-330,00...Thu, 04 May 2000 12:56:09
______________________________________________________________________________
N A V I G A T E |
-----------------------+
CBS NEWS |
|
-----------------------+ CBS NEWS | SciTech | |
| | ------------------------------------+------+
| | |
| | |
|---------------------+ |
|| | -------------------------------------------+
|| SciTech | |
|| | |
|| -------------+ |
|| | | |
|| | | | Internet 'Love' Bug Hits
|| | | | Computers
|| |-----------+ |
|| || |
|| || Eye on Space | | * Computer Virus Spread By
|| || | | IM And E-mail
|| || WeatherWatch | | * Strikes Asian And European
|| || | | Businesses And Government
|| || Bootcamp | | * Outbreaks Growing Across
|| || | | United States
|| || Digital Dan's | |
|| || Gizmorama | |
|| || | | HONG KONG
|| || ---------------+ | Thursday, May 04, 2000 -
|| || | 12:43 PM ET
|| |+ |
|| | ||
|| | || (CBS) A
|| | || new
|| -+------------------+| computer
|| Local Headlines || virus
|| || spread
|| National || quickly
|| || around
|| World || the
|| || world
|| Showbiz || Thursday,
|| || swamping
|| Programs || U.S.
|| || corporate
|| Campaign 2000 || CBS networks
|| || with
|| Polls || e-mails
|| || entitled
|| Money || "ILOVEYOU"
|| || after
|| Health || crippling
|| || government
|| Breeds Apart || and
|| || business
|| Hey Howard || computers
|| || in Asia
|| --------------------+| and Europe.
|| |
|+----------------------+ Experts
| | said they
| | were
| | stunned by
-+-----------------------+ the speed
WEATHER | and wide
| reach of
SPORTS | the virus
| -- which
NEWS GAME | struck
| members of
LOCAL GUIDE | U.S.
| Congress
JOBS | and
| British
SHOPPING | parliament
| -- and
MONEY | warned
| computer
HEALTH | users not
| to open
ON AIR | the
| "LOVELET
CBS SHOWS | TER"
| attachment
COUPONS | that comes
| with the
MR. FOOD | contaminated
| e-mail.
MARTHA |
| "It appears
-------------------------+ to be the
U T I L I T I E S | same sort of
-------------------------+ class of
SITE MAP | virus as
| Melissa,"
FEEDBACK | the e-mail
| virus that
CHANGE CITY | crippled
| computer
HELP | systems
| around the
-------------------------+ world about
| a year ago,
-------------------------+ said Bill
Pollack,
spokesman
for the CERT
Coordination
Center in
Pittsburgh,
a
government-chartered
computer security
team. But, Pollack
cautioned, "there
are other ways that
it spreads in
addition to e-mail
and that's what
we're looking into
now."
According to a virus
tracking system at
the Web site of the
Trend Micro computer
security firm, more
than 120,000
computers were said
to be infected in
the United States by
midmorning, up from
less than 20,000
just an hour before.
"It may be the most
comprehensive
spreading that I
have seen," said
Snorre Fagerland of
the computer
security company
Norman in Oslo,
Norway, where the
virus struck an
untold number of
companies.
The bug appeared in
Hong Kong late in
the afternoon,
spreading throughout
e-mail systems once
a user opened one of
the contaminated
messages. It later
moved into European
parliamentary houses
and through the
high-tech systems of
big companies and
financial traders.
"We do know (the
virus) deletes
several important
files on your
machine," said CBS
News Computer
Consultant Larry
Magid. "It can
affect files that
can disable Windows.
It doesn't wipe out
your hard drive but
it can do some
serious damage that
makes your computer
unusable."
The "love bug" began
invading computers
in the United States
Thursday morning.
Ford Motor Company
shut down company
e-mail services
because of the
virus, says Reporter
Jeff Gilbert of CBS
Station WWJ in
Detroit.
"The way it
replicates itself is
particularly
obnoxious, because
the message appears
to come from
somebody you know,"
Magid said.
"I have to tell you
that, sadly, this
affectionate
greeting contains a
virus which has
immobilized the
House's internal
communication
system," said
Margaret Beckett,
leader of Britain's
House of Commons.
"This means that no
member can receive
e-mails from
outside, nor indeed
can we communicate
with each other by
e-mail."
In Asia, Dow Jones
Newswires and the
Asian Wall Street
Journal were among
the victims. The bug
affected only e-mail
and did not prevent
Dow Jones Newswires
from distributing
financial
information to
traders. The Asian
Wall Street Journal
would have no
problems publishing,
officials there said.
But the e-mail
systems went wild.
"It crashed all the
computers," said
Daphne Ghesquiere, a
Dow Jones
spokeswoman in Hong
Kong. "You get the
message and the
topic says ILOVEYOU,
and I was among the
stupid ones to open
it. I got about five
at one time and I
was suspicious, but
one was from Dow
Jones Newswires, so
I opened it."
Once the message was
opened, Ghesquiere
said, it began
sending the virus to
other e-mail
addresses within the
Dow Jones computers,
blocking people's
ability to send and
receive e-mail.
Victims sometimes
received dozens of
e-mails, all
contaminated.
"I have no idea how
it got through the
firewall,"
Ghesquiere said.
"It's supposed to be
protected."
The virus posed its
biggest threat to
corporate users,
because it
apparently had the
ability to spread to
the first 300 e-mail
addresses in
affected accounts,
expert Ross Wilson
said.
"It's not pretty,"
said Wilson, the
Singapore-based
Southeast Asia
director of
Symantec, a
U.S.-based company
that makes
anti-virus software.
"It's got the
capability of
spreading very, very
quickly."
In Denmark, the
parliament, telecom
company Tele
Danmark, channel TV2
and the Environment
and Energy Ministry
were all affected
starting this
morning.
"We have no clue how
it got in," said
Hugo Praestegaard of
the Environment and
Energy Ministry.
The virus hit the
Swiss federal
government computer
network late in the
morning, said
Claudio Frigerio of
the Federal Office
for Information
Technology in Bern.
The system was
switched off
immediately to stop
the virus from
spreading.
Bank, hospital and
national television
e-mail networks in
Switzerland were
also affected,
Frigerio said.
CBS Worldwide Inc. All Rights
Reserved. This material may not be
published, broadcast, rewritten, or
redistributed. The Associated Press
contributed to this report.
|
|
|
R E L A T E D S T O R I E S|
|
|
|
------------------------------+-------------
--------------------------------------------
* Basic Protection For Your Computer
|
|
|
R E L A T E D L I N K S|
|
|
|
--------------------------+-----------------
--------------------------------------------
* Carnegie Mellon's resource for Internet
security
| back to top
|
| |
| |
| |
-+-------------------------------+
|
|
|
---------------------------------+
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--
-- Arachne V1.61, NON-COMMERCIAL copy, http://arachne.cz/
