Keep them eyes peeled! (Yet another reason to find a "real" email program; as long as these dastardly virus and trojan writers continue to target Outlook and Outlook Express, you can give yourself more protection by switching to a "stand-alone" email program.) ************************* New, Nastier 'Love Bug' Virus Threatens Computers By Dan Lalor Reuters LONDON (May 19) - Software security firms warned computer users on Friday to guard against a new, more virulent strain of the "Love Bug" virus that swept the world earlier this month. Experts said several thousand computers were already infected by new e-mail virus, dubbed "Herbie: Love Bug II." It causes more severe damage than the original because it wipes files clean and tries to hide by changing its appearance. But there are hopes it may not spread as widely because companies have updated security since the first Love Bug. "Unfortunately, with destructive payloads inside this version, the stakes and costs are much higher than before," said Simon Perry, vice president of security solutions at U.S.-based Computer Associates. Perry said the virus renamed all files on a computer's local hard drive and associated network drives with a VBS (visual basic script) extension and set the file size to zero -- effectively making the computer system and network inoperable. Alan Stevens, head of digital services at Britain's Consumers Association, said the VBS extension was key to recognizing and destroying the virus. "You would not normally expect someone to send you an e-mail with a VBS extension. They are unusual, so they should be a dead giveaway to someone who knows what they are doing." NOT WIDESPREAD YET, BUT CAN MOVE FAST The Herbie virus, which targets users of Microsoft's Outlook program, arrives with "FW:" in the subject line. This is not that unusual in itself, signifying that the message has been forwarded from elsewhere. The VBS extension is contained in the body of the e-mail. Once opened, the virus will send itself to everyone in the recipient's Outlook address book, just as the Love Bug virus did, but the attached file name may change each time a new e-mail is sent. The Love Bug virus mainly carried the message: "I love you." Eric Chien, chief research manager for U.S. computer security firm Symantec Corp, said the new bug was "more nasty" than Love Bug because "it is highly polymorphic...it changes the way it looks every time." He rated its current spread as "medium" but gave it a "high" rating for its potential to replicate further. While some Symantec (Norton) clients in Europe and Israel had been affected, the main impact was on North American clients, Chien said, possibly because users were only just getting to their screens at the start of the European day. Raimund Genes, managing director of Trend Micro, a German messaging and Internet access provider, told Reuters from Berlin that while he had received no reports of the virus there, its impact would vary among computers because it was mutating. "Some computers will still work but send out the virus," he said, while others will become inoperable. BEST ADVICE: BEWARE VBS Computer users were advised to filter for e-mails with the word "FW" along with an attachment with a .VBS extension. Then, any e-mail attachments with a VBS extension should be treated with caution, Stevens at the Consumers Association said. "The normal rules apply. Make sure all files are backed up and be cautious with the unusual." Chien at Symantec said his company was having to write new code to send to clients, whereas the solution to Love Bug had been more of a ready-made "off-the-peg" job. The original "Love Bug" crippled computers worldwide, including at the U.S. Pentagon, and is estimated to have cost $7 billion in damage. A Philippine computer school dropout is under investigation for spreading the cyber-worm. (The original Herbie was a Volkswagen Beetle car in a series of "Love Bug" movies in the 1970s.) ************************* SgtGeorge SgtGeorge George W. Durman Knoxville, TN VIRUS-DISCUSSION List Administrator EUDORA-MAIL List Administrator