Goner Virus

Heads up from Yahoo! News:

'Goner' Worm Hitting Corporations, Individual PCs

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - A new computer worm named ``Goner'' was spreading quickly through corporate and personal e-mail inboxes on Tuesday, deleting system files and clogging networks in what could be the biggest outbreak since last year's ``Love Letter'' virus, security software vendors said.

The worm, a virus that propagates itself to other computers through the Internet or other networks, is affecting users of Microsoft Corp.'s (Nasdaq:MSFT - news) Outlook and Outlook Express, said Ian Hameroff, business manager of security solutions at Computer Associates International Inc. (NYSE:CA - news)

People using ICQ instant messenger and Internet Relay Chat also are susceptible to the worm because files can be transferred across those networks, Hameroff said.

Researchers estimated thousands of computers had been infected by the worm, which is believed to have originated in France, according to April Goostree, virus research manager at McAfee.com.

``This is at outbreak status, which is very rare,'' Goostree said. ``The last outbreak we had was 'Love Letter' in May 2000.''

A virus is given outbreak status by McAfee.com if it is determined to be spreading quickly and affecting large corporate networks as well as individual computer users, Goostree said.

The Goner worm arrives in an attachment masquerading as a screensaver, with an e-mail subject line of ``Hi'' and text that says: ``How are you? When I saw this screen saver, I immediately thought about you I am in a harry (sic), I promise you will love it!''

Once the user clicks on the attachment, the worm sends itself to everyone in the user's e-mail address book, tries to close programs that are running and deletes certain system files, including firewall and antivirus software, said Hameroff.