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| How to prevent getting Melissa virus? | |
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What
exactly is the Melissa outbreak? Melissa is a computer virus launched when
a user opens an infected Microsoft Word 8 or Word 9 document contained in
either Office 97 or Office 2000. How does it
spread? The virus prompts Microsoft's Outlook
e-mail program to send an infected document to the first 50 addresses in a
victim's Microsoft Outlook address book. The e-mail can appear to be from
a boss, co-worker, or friend. Even if the user doesn't use Outlook, the
virus can infiltrate the default Word document template "Normal.dot"
and send the virus to anyone receiving their Word documents. The virus also attacks the registry for
Word 97 and changes security settings that prevent the Word macro warning
from appearing. |
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| What
does it look like? The original virus is sent via e-mail with the subject line "Important Message From..." and then automatically fills in the user's name. The text inside the message reads "Here is the document that you asked for. Don't show anyone else ;-)." The message includes an attached document of pornographic Web sites called "list.doc." Some other variants are emerging. When are you
especially vulnerable? If the minute of the hour matches the date (for example, 3:31 on March 31), Melissa will insert the following Bart Simpson quote into the current open Word document: "Twenty-two points, plus triple-word score, plus fifty points for using all my letters. Game's over. I'm outta here." How is Melissa
mutating? A variant of Melissa, called
W97M_MELISSA.A, appears with a blank subject line. This defeats an initial
patch from sendmail.com for Melissa, which scans for a subject header.
Other versions are expected to crop up in the days ahead. Where can I find
more information?
Related stories:
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| The above article is contributed by Ann Harrison | |
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