FBI targets new computer bug

The FBI has been called in to investigate a new computer virus potentially more destructive than the Love Bug virus that crippled computers around the world and caused billions of dollars of damage.

This new virus...is more difficult for users and anti-virus programs to detect

FBI

The new virus, christened NewLove-A, mutates, giving itself new names to avoid detection as it spreads and tries to overwrite numerous files, making the computer inoperable.

Computers at several large US firms were hit late on Thursday, according to anti-virus software company Trend Micro in California.

However, Paul Ducklin, a spokesman for anti-virus company Sophos said so far it has had no reports of UK organisations being hit by the virus.

Web alert

FBI spokeswoman Debbie Weierman said it was too early to determine the origin of the latest virus.

But like the Love Bug which originated in the Philippines, the virus spreads by mailing itself to everyone in the Microsoft Outlook address book on the computer it has infected.

It arrives in an e-mail attachment just like the Love Bug which wreaked havoc two weeks ago.

"We see about 30 different viruses a day. Most are harmless, but some are very destructive," said Mark Rasch of the computer security firm Global Integrity.

"We're always behind the curve because the hackers and the virus writers are always becoming more clever at writing these things and getting people to open them," he said.

End of the affair: The Love Bug caused billions of pounds of damage

However, it is not given away by an "ILOVEYOU" subject line.

The FBI-led National Infrastructure Protection Centre (NIPC) said in an alert on its website: "This new virus can change the subject line and the program code every time it is retransmitted, thus making it more difficult for users and anti-virus programs to detect."

If no files were recently used, the virus uses a random word or phrase as its subject, preceded by the usual "FW" abbreviation for forwarded correspondence.

The e-mail will have an attachment with the same name, but ending in "vbs".

Mr Ducklin of Sophos said every time the virus mutates, it increases its file size. "After three generations of e-mail, each attachment is around 800 kilobytes in size."

Increased awareness

But because the attachments are so big and take Outlook so long to generate, Sophos does not think that the virus will spread as far and as fast as the Love Bug.

However, machines infected by the virus could suffer more damage because once it has mailed itself, the virus attempts to destroy most of the files on the hard drive.

Only people running Microsoft's Outlook e-mail program for Windows are vulnerable. "If you don't blindly trust attachments then you are not going to run the thing in the first place," said Mr Ducklin.

Dave Perry of Trend Micro said he hoped that increased awareness among e-mail users would hold back the spread of the new virus.

"Any time a virus hits a week after another virus its potency is diminished," he said. "People tend to be a little more cautious."