New 'War Vote' Virus Deletes Computer Files > By Elinor Mills Abreu > SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Security experts on Monday warned of a brand new > virus masquerading as a program that will allow people to vote whether the > United States should go to war over the deadly Sept. 11 hijacker attacks, > but which deletes computer files instead. > The ``Vote Virus'' is spreading via e-mail to users of Microsoft Corp.'s > (Nasdaq:MSFT <<http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=msft&d=t>> - news > <<http://biz.yahoo.com/n/m/msft.html>>) Outlook e-mail program, said Simon > Perry, vice president of security solutions at Computer Associates > International Inc. (NYSE:CA <<http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=ca&d=t>> - news > <<http://biz.yahoo.com/n/c/ca.html>>) > The virus appears with the subject line: ``Peace between America and > Islam!'' and the body of the e-mail reads: ``Hi. Is it a war against > America or Islam!? Let's vote to live in peace!'' Perry said. > When the attachment entitled ``WTC.exe'' is opened, the virus deletes all > the files on the computer's hard drive and sends copies of the e-mail to > every address listed in the computer's address book, he said. > The virus also defaces any Web pages that are hosted by an infected > computer to read: ``America ... few days will show you what we can do!!! > It's our turn ))) Zaker is so sorry for you.'' > The virus is believed to be the work of an opportunist and not associated > with the Sept. 11 jetliner attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon > (news > <<http://rd.yahoo.com/DailyNews/manual/*http://search.news.yahoo.com/searc > h/news?p=%22Pentagon%22&c=&n=20&yn=c&c=news&cs=nw>> - web sites > <<http://rd.yahoo.com/DailyNews/manual/*http://search.yahoo.com/search?p=P > entagon&h=c>>) in which more than 6,000 people are believed to be dead or > missing. > ``There is no evidence that this is related to the people who carried > out'' the attacks, Perry said. > ``We feel this is likely to get quite a high pickup in that a lot of > people are going to click on this,'' he said. ``If the news about this > doesn't get out before people get their e-mails, they're at risk.'' > > Computer Associates is working on software that will enable its Innoculate > anti-virus software to detect the new virus and prevent it from infecting > a computer, Perry said >