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VIRUS OUTBREAK!!!
The Kama Sutra worm, which hits the third day
of the month, destroys a variety of Microsoft
and Adobe documents on hard drives.
NEW YORK (Feb. 3) - If you have computer
files you'd rather not lose, now is a good
time to make sure your anti-virus software is
up to date. A worm set to activate Friday
will corrupt documents using the most common
file types, including ".doc,"
".pdf," and
".zip."
Hundreds of thousands of machines are
believed to be infected, mostly in India,
Peru, Turkey and Italy, said Mikko Hypponen,
chief research officer for Finnish security
company F-Secure Corp.
The worm , known as "CME-24,"
"BlackWorm,"
"Mywife.E" or a number of other
monikers, even tries to disable anti-virus
software that is out of date, he said.
Thus, users should make sure their software
is turned on and has the latest definitions,
generally available for free from the
software vendor's Web site. F-Secure also
has created a free removal tool.
"If you are infected, and you find out
about it today, you still have time to get
rid of the virus," Hypponen said.
As worms go, the spread of BlackWorm is
relatively low. But worms these days are
generally designed to help spammers and
hackers carry out attacks, not to destroy
files as this one does. So the impact this
time may be more severe.
Microsoft Corp. issued an advisory Tuesday
warning customers about the worm , which
affects most versions of its Windows
operating system.
Users should be safe if they have the latest
anti-virus software or if their computers are
set with limited privileges, a common setting
in larger organizations. They are vulnerable
if they, like many small business and home
users, leave their computers set with full
administrative rights.
And users should check the date on the
computer. The worm hits the third of every
month, so if the computer's local calendar
settings are off, Hypponen said, files may be
destroyed sooner or later, even if the
computer is never turned on Friday.
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