I usually don't give these alerts much credence but since this can be checked out so easily, I thought it was worth posting. Someone please read the Wallstreet journal and advise :-( or :-) .

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>"E-Mail Virus Spreads on Internet, Could Tie Up Traffic if Unstopped", reads the Wall street Journal headline this morning!

>"Melissa" shut down e-mail servers at Microsoft and Lucent yesterday >afternoon. This one is dangerous!

>According to the WSJ article:

> "The virus enters a computer in an e-mail message labeled "Important Message From." The message also includes the apparent sender's name. "Melissa replicates itself when a computer user opens the e-mail and a Word-based attachment it contains. Once open and active, the virus sends infected e-mail to 50 new recipients it finds in the computer owner's address book." > >If you get an e-mail with "Important Message From" as its subject, do >not open it until you confirm its contents by contacting the person who sent it to you! Do not open any Word-based attachments in any messages until you confirm the contents with the person who sent it to you, especially if the e-mail message itself reads: "Here's the document you asked for. Don't show it to anyone else."

>If your e-mail software includes an option to automatically open >attachments, turn it off now! > >Beware

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Me.

-- Floyd Baker (fbaker@wzrd.com), March 28, 1999

Answers

got this virus on late friday at work----it was sent to 30,000 employees via some company wide electronic distribution mail using ms exchange/outlook lists..the attachment was a listing of sex sites. I did'nt open it as it looked like a fake message anyway, but others in the office did--provided some laughs, but than those died down real quick when it kept getting sent multiple times to us. hmmm---maybe if our mail systems can behave this way, wonder what 00 would do the real systems at work that do payroll, accounting, inventory, well you know the story.

-- Wade B. Cook (brogan2070@aol.com), March 28, 1999.

MSNBC is issuing this same alert.

Can the originator of something like this virus be found?

-- Linda A. (adahi@muhlon.com), March 28, 1999.

Wade B. Cook,

The financial analyst/advisor? No need to answer, it's just that I'm always quite interested in the depth and diversity of knowledge and background that results in people finding their way to this forum...

Curious

-- Wanda (lonevoice@mailexcite.com), March 28, 1999.

Rare Warning of Computer Virus Issued

By Geof Becker
Associated Press
Saturday, March 27, 1999; 5:33 p.m. EST

PITTSBURGH =96 A new computer virus can allow documents to be e-mailed to other people without warning, a potential security breach that should worry businesses and governments, an expert at Carnegie Mellon University said Saturday.

The "Melissa macro" or W97M-Melissa virus spreads via infected e-mail and attacks computers loaded with Microsoft's widely used Word 97 or Word 2000 programs, according to CERT =96 or Computer Emergency Response Team =96 Carnegie Mellon's Defense Department-funded computer security team.

CERT first heard of the virus Friday afternoon and its members worked through the night to analyze the virus and develop a fix, CERT manager Katherine Fithen said.

"We're getting so many reports from across the world that we know this is going to be a huge problem come Monday," Fithen said.

She noted that since CERT was founded 10 years ago, thisis only the second time it has considered a virus important enough to warrant a public announcement. The first, in 1994, warned of a virus that allowed computer burglars to collect passwords.

CERT has not determined where the Melissa virus originated.

Fithen said she is not allowed to say whether any governmental agency has suffered a security breach as the result of Melissa.=

If a computer user opens an infected Word-format document, the virus propagates itself by reading the user's e-mail address book and sending an infected message to the first 50 entries, CERT said.

The message can include the contents of any Word document that is open on the computer, Fithen said.

Also, the virus reproduces and sends so much unwanted e-mail that the volume can overload some mail servers, the computers that distribute e-mail.

However, it apparently causes no direct damage to a computer's memory or programs.

Infected documents are sent as attachments to e-mails most frequently bearing a header: "Subject: Important Message From" the name of person whose computer relayed the virus.

The body of the message says "Here is that document you asked for ... don't show it to anyone else ;-)."

=A9 Copyright 1999 The Associated Press

-- Got-It (%$^&^@^&%$.!!!), March 28, 1999.

i've seen 3 reuters articles so far. drudgereport, others, have the latest.

-- jocelyne slough (jonslough@tln.net), March 29, 1999.

For more info about the virus see:

www.cert.org/advisories/CA-99-04-Melissa-Macro-Virus.html.

Microsoft has a patch available at

www.microsoft.com/security/bulletins/ms99-002.asp

I saw an article about this virus in my morning paper. Anyone with Outlook or Outlook Express e-mail is vulnerable. I don't know how to establish a link. Sorry about that! Could someone be so kind as to do that?

-- luann (flataufm@hutchtel.net), March 29, 1999.