FWD: Computer Virus Could Render a Very Unhappy New Year

[John Marra]

http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20011219/tc/tech_virus_dc_1.html

Computer Virus Could Render a Very Unhappy New Year
By Ilaina Jonas

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A newly discovered computer worm, sent under guise of
a holiday greeting, has popped up in the United States and Europe and, if
activated, could destroy personal computers, experts said on Wednesday.

The Reeezak worm enters a computer as an e-mail message in Microsoft Corp.
(Nasdaq:MSFT - news) Outlook with a subject line ``Happy New Year'' and an
attachment -- ``Christmas.exe'' -- which a recipient may think is a
Christmas card.

The worm can disable selective keys on the infected computer's keyboard
and delete all the files found in the Windows System Directory, rendering
the computer inoperable, said Ian Hameroff, director of antivirus
solutions for Computer Associates International Inc. (NYSE:CA - news).

Because the worm, a self-propagating virus, sends itself to every e-mail
in an address book, recipients are more likely to open the attachment
because it appears to come from a recognized source.

``If it were launched in June, many people would be suspicious of it, but
since it is the holidays and you may be expecting to receive such
greetings from friends and colleagues you may trust this and receive a
gift you aren't exactly expecting,'' Hameroff said.

Hameroff recommends recipients of e-mail messages that come with
unsolicited attachments call the sender to verify they sent it before
opening the attachment and possibly activating a virus.

Reeezak first appeared in the United Kingdom and other parts of Europe and
was detected later in the United States, where Hameroff guessed thousands
of computers have been infected.

Computer Associates rated the worm a medium to high risk.

Symantec Corp.'s (Nasdaq:SYMC - news) Security Response unit had not yet
rated it Wednesday afternoon and McAfee.com had it at a low risk threat.

A message in the body of the Reeezak e-mail reads (with the first word
misspelled):

``Hii

I can't describe my feelings

But all i can say is

Happy New Year :)

bye''

Other names for the worm are: W32.Zacker.C+mm and W32.Maldal.C+mm.