[UI Announcement for LOVE virus]

[Guest guest]

Thought I would forward this for folks who haven't heard about this virus

yet. They are having to shut down the email at the U to try and get it out

of the system (luckily I am on a unix system, so I don't have to worry).

C

UI Announcement for LOVE virus

ITS has received numerous calls from customers reporting the

" ILOVEYOU " virus that is spreading across the world rapidly today.

If you are running Windows 98, Windows 2000, or another version of

Windows that has had Windows Scripting Host installed, you are vulnerable

to the virus. The best thing to do is delete the message without opening

the attachment and then delete the message from your deleted folder.

Here are some articles to become more educated about what the virus does

and how it spreads.

>From MSNBC:

http://www.msnbc.com/news/403350.asp

>From AP:

By BRUCE MEYERSON, AP Business Writer

A new computer virus spread quickly around the world today, swamping

U.S.

corporate networks with e-mails entitled " ILOVEYOU " after crippling

government and business computers in Asia and Europe.

Experts said they were stunned by the speed and wide reach of the virus

-

which struck members of U.S. Congress and British parliament - and

warned

computer users not to open the " LOVELETTER " attachment that comes with

the

contaminated e-mail.

" It appears to be the same sort of class of virus as , " the

e-mail

virus that crippled computer systems around the world about a year ago,

said Bill Pollack, spokesman for the CERT Coordination Center in

Pittsburgh, a government-chartered computer security team. But, Pollack

cautioned, " there are other ways that it spreads in addition to e-mail

and

that's what we're looking into now. "

According to a virus tracking system at the Web site of the Trend Micro

computer security firm, more than 120,000 computers were said to be

infected in the United States by midmorning, up from less than 20,000

just

an hour before.

In Britain, about 30 percent of company e-mail systems were brought down

by

the virus, according to Network Associates, another computer security

firm.

In Sweden, the tally was 80 percent.

Much like , the " love bug " spreads by infiltrating a computer

user's

address book and sending copies of itself to that person's contacts.

However, the new virus also seemed to be using instant messaging or

" Internet chat " systems such as ICQ to spread, Computer Associates

reported.

The virus appeared in Hong Kong late in the afternoon, spreading

throughout

e-mail systems once a user opened one of the contaminated messages. It

later moved into European parliamentary houses and through the high-tech

systems of big companies and financial traders.

" I have to tell you that, sadly, this affectionate greeting contains a

virus which has immobilized the House's internal communication system, "

said Margaret Beckett, leader of Britain's House of Commons. " This means

that no member can receive e-mails from outside, nor indeed can we

communicate with each other by e-mail. "

In the United States, the " love bug " shut down the Florida Lottery Web

site

and e-mail system, said lottery spokesman Leo DiBenigno.

In Asia, Dow Newswires and the Asian Wall Street Journal were

among

the victims. The bug affected only e-mail and did not prevent Dow

Newswires from distributing financial information to traders. The Asian

Wall Street Journal would have no problems publishing, officials there

said.

But the e-mail systems went wild.

" It crashed all the computers, " said Daphne Ghesquiere, a Dow

spokeswoman in Hong Kong. " You get the message and the topic says

ILOVEYOU,

and I was among the stupid ones to open it. I got about five at one time

and I was suspicious, but one was from Dow Newswires, so I opened

it. "

Once the message was opened, Ghesquiere said, it began sending the virus

to

other e-mail addresses within the Dow computers, blocking people's

ability to send and receive e-mail. Victims sometimes received dozens of

e-mails, all contaminated.

" I have no idea how it got through the firewall, " Ghesquiere said. " It's

supposed to be protected. "

The virus posed its biggest threat to corporate users, because it

apparently had the ability to spread to the first 300 e-mail addresses

in

affected accounts, virus expert Ross said.

" It's not pretty, " said , the Singapore-based Southeast Asia

director

of Symantec, a U.S.-based company that makes anti-virus software. " It's

got

the capability of spreading very, very quickly. "

In Denmark, the parliament, telecom company Tele Danmark, channel TV2

and

the Environment and Energy Ministry were all affected starting this

morning.

" We have no clue how it got in, " said Hugo Praestegaard of the

Environment

and Energy Ministry.

The virus hit the Swiss federal government computer network late in the

morning, said Claudio Frigerio of the Federal Office for Information

Technology in Bern. The system was switched off immediately to stop the

virus from spreading.

Bank, hospital and national television e-mail networks in Switzerland

were

also affected, Frigerio said.