WIX Archives

Some Xmas Cheer ...another virus ;-(

Posted by Dave on Thu Dec 20, 2001 02:55:24 AM

This from my ISP .....


Very Unhappy New Year
20/12/2001 01:38 PM - Ilaina Jonas

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 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.

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 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.

Follow Ups: