Deadly New Virus
You’d think by now people would know not to double-click on strange email attachments. A deadly new Windows virus called ‘Sircam’ is rapidly spreading across the internet, and over the weekend made its way to number one on the top 10 current viral threats list. The virus, which initially confused security experts because it behaves like both a worm and a virus, is troublesome to remove from an infected system because it copies itself to the Recycle Bin which is not usually scanned by virus software. Once it has infected a system, the program attaches itself to excerpts from Word documents and pictures found in the Documents folder, and emails them addresses it gleans from Outlook Express (Windows’ email program). It will then decide (with about a one in 33 chance) whether or not to fill all unused space on the hard drive with random text. If the system is using the non-US date fomat (dd/mm/yy), it will wait until October 16 when the system’s hard drive has a one in 20 chance of being reformatted.
The simplest way to avoid being infected is not to execute (double click on) any unknown or unexpected email attachments, and immediately delete any strange emails.
Wired
posted by monty · at 11:07 pm · filed under News