'I Love You' Virus Hits Computers

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'I Love You' Virus Hits Computers

By Bruce Meyerson AP Business Writer Thursday, May 4, 2000; 5:08 p.m. EDT

The first major software virus in nearly a year crippled computer networks around the world on Thursday, bombarding government and corporate offices with a destructive e-mail message that says "ILOVEYOU."

The "love bug" infected at least 270,000 computers in the first hours of the outbreak, not only spreading by e-mail like last year's Melissa virus, but through instant messaging systems that let people "chat" on the Internet.

And, in another malicious twist, the new virus was designed to destroy several types of increasingly popular computer files, including those storing pictures, video and music.

The bug also attacks by commandeering a computer's Internet browser to visit a Web page, download a program that searches for various types of passwords, and send them to an e-mail account that appears to be based in the Philippines, antivirus experts said.

"If this (virus) is unleashed on your home computer, I hope you have backups. It is a destructive file. Once it has run, it has done its damage," said Shawn Hernan, vulnerabilty team manager at the CERT Coordination Center, the government-chartered computer security team at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh.

Computer security experts, stunned by the rapid spread of the virus, urged computer users to delete any e-mail with a subject line reading "ILOVEYOU" and a message saying "kindly check the attached LOVELETTER coming from me." The virus is activated by opening the "LOVELETTER" attachment.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation quickly opened a criminal investigation into the virus, while computer security firms scurried to post software on their Web sites to scan for the bug and remove it from infected machines.

The virus targets computers running on Microsoft's Windows operating system, attacking the Outlook e-mail program and the Internet Explorer browser, both of which are also made by Microsoft.

It spreads like most e-mail viruses, arriving as a seemingly friendly message, infiltrating a person's computer address book and sending copies of itself to contacts listed.

But in addition to overwhelming computer networks with the sheer crush of e-mail it generates, the new virus strikes out at some of the most popular new passions on the Internet, destroying digital photographs and music stored with the digital technology known as MP3.

Victims included Capital Hill and British parliament, as well as major corporations such as AT&T, which shut down an e-mail system serving 145,700 employees.

"We're trying to give our tech support people enough room to find a cleanser and make us pure again," said AT&T spokesman Burke Stinson.

In Britain, about 30 percent of company e-mail systems were brought down by the virus, according to Network Associates, a computer security firm. In Sweden, the tally was 80 percent.

"The way we look at the I Love You virus is it's almost like Melissa on steroids," said Srivats Sampath, chief executive of McAfee.com, a division of Network Associates. "It's the fastest propagating virus we've seen."

The chagrin of some was tempered by the humor of the situation.

"I stepped away from my desk for 30 minutes and when I came back, there were 177 people who were in love with me," said Ted Canova, news director at WCCO-TV in Minneapolis. "That's in addition to the 200 I had when I signed on today."

Ron Dick, an official with the FBI's National Infrastructure Protection Center, said agents were trying to verify reports that the outbreak may have begun in Asia, possibly the Philippines.

"As this spreads, obviously the number of transmission points increases exponentially, so we try as early on as possible to narrow the scope of where we are first seeing this," said Dick.

-- Uncle Bob (unclb0b@aol.com), May 04, 2000


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