http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1003-200-5652326.html?tag=mn_hd
By CNET News.com Staff
April 18, 2001, 9:30 a.m. PT
Antivirus software companies said a new virus that disguises itself as
a program for finding romance partners is spreading quickly between
companies in Europe.
Companies say the virus, known as Matcher.A, is less potent than the I
Love You virus that ravaged computer systems last May, but it could
pose a nuisance by overloading mail servers internationally.
"What is interesting about it is that it has a timer and continues to
send out e-mails to everyone," said Eric Chien, head of antivirus
research for Symantec. "Mail servers could become overwhelmed."
Chien said that so far Symantec has received roughly 30 reports of the
virus from corporate customers.
British antivirus company Sophos said it has received about a dozen
reports, but one customer based in France was forced to shut down its
mail system. "It doesn't seem to be a vast epidemic," said Graham
Cluley, head of virus research at Sophos. "But it is obviously a cause
for concern."
The virus, which targets only Windows users, comes attached to an
e-mail message with the subject "Matcher," disguised as a program that
will find someone a romantic match. The e-mail has the message: "Want
to find you love mates!!! Try this its cool... Looks and Attitude
Maching to opposite sex."
The virus does not damage an infected computer but is designed to
spread quickly. Written in Visual Basic and transformed into an
executable file, it periodically sends itself to everyone in a
victim's address book. During system boot it also displays the message
"From: Bugger" in DOS.
Cluley said that with luck, most PC users will not be fooled by the
incoherent e-mail. "We hope that because it doesn't look like a
regular communication it won't spread that much."
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Received on Thu Apr 19 03:47 CDT 2001