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Latest e-mail virus not as disruptive as expected
But not before overwhelming some network computer servers with a flood of e-mails unleashed when users double-clicked on an e-mail attachment titled "AnnaKournikova.jpg.vbs."
Local companies and a Carnegie Mellon University computer emergency clearing house agency report that lessons learned from previous viruses - especially the Melissa virus in March 1999 and the "I Love You" virus from last May - helped curb the impact of this latest cyber-pest.
Many anti-virus companies have known about the Kournikova bug for several months, said Brain King, a CERT technician, and have sent updates to immunize against it.
"(The virus) is probably going to be around for a little while, but it doesn't seem to be getting any worse," King said.
Once triggered, the virus, called a "macro," breeds inside the popular Microsoft Outlook e-mail program, sending copies of itself to everyone in the user's e-mail address book.
Microsoft in June sent out a security update for the Outlook e-mail program to suppress contaminated attachments.
The virus messages come with "Here you have," "Here you go," or "Here you are" in the subject line. The body of the messages state "Hi: Check This!" beckoning the users to sneak a peak of Kournikova.
"It's been almost a non-event for us," said Jon Rosenson, director of strategic initiatives for Stargate Industries, a Pittsburgh Internet service provider. "We saw a little spike (Monday) around noon. Within an hour and a half of the first messages we started receiving, the volume tailed off."
Avoiding viruses |
Clarke said Stargate did not find it necessary to notify its dial-up Internet service customers of the virus, as it did with the previous viruses, due to its relative lack of virulence.
The mass e-mailings did hinder some county government and Port Authority systems Monday.
Someone at the Port Authority opened the virus about noon and it sent itself to about 700 mailboxes. The transportation agency's e-mail system was shut down from noon Monday until 9 a.m. yesterday, said Maureen Bertocci, chief technology officer.
"We experienced no damage to the e-mail server and any of our systems," said Bertocci, who used a quarantine program to isolate the virus and purge it out of the system.
But not before it made its way to Allegheny County government computer systems.
The virus spread throughout many of the county's 4,000 computers and was still wreaking havoc yesterday evening, said Per Madsen, chief information officer for the county.
"It generates a fire storm of messages. We started yesterday and were still trying to clean up," said Madsen, who worked through the night on the bug.
Staff writer Mark Lukasiak contributed to this report
