The "Thursday" virus...Breaking News

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'Thursday' virus outbreak reported

Updated 8:55 AM ET

September 2, 1999

By Margaret Kane, ZDNet News

Network Associates has reported an outbreak of a Word Macro virus among banks and financial institutions in eight different countries. The anti-virus software maker said today that its Anti-Virus Emergency Response Team had received the infection notices over the past 24 hours.

The "Thursday" virus was first detected last month, and was reported by several anti-virus companies. It is a Word 97 macro virus that infects the normal.dot file. Network Associates said the virus will attempt to delete all files on a user's C drive on December 13.

A spokesman for the company said that the virus may have spread to at least one other industry, although it does not appear to have begun striking consumers.

Network Associates said a patch for the virus is available at its Web site at www.macafee.com.

The virus was first detected in London. A spokesman for Network Associates said the concern was that as UK bank offices began talking with their US counterparts -- it would "jump the Atlantic," today.

"The virus had not hit many accounts (when it was discovered), but we increased our risk assessment, given that it's starting to spread fairly rapidly among financial institutions," said Gene Hodges, vice president of development at Network Associates.

Hodges said another concern is that the virus is a "sleeper," meaning users may not know they're infected until December 13, when they could lose their files. The date is also an issue because it is so close to the Year 2000 deadline, when companies IT departments are busy dealing with other problems.

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For the last few days, every chance I get, I've been trying to get a response to a "what if". That being, what if the reason why the government is worried about the 99/09/09 problem or what ever is because it could be a "trigger date" for sabotage. There is no doubt, the government IS worried about 9/9/99.

Well, maybe.

Mike

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-- Michael Taylor (mtdesign3@aol.com), September 02, 1999


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