Free WiFi Hotspot Locator from TechNewsWorldOriginally published on November 22, 1999 and brought to you today as a time capsule.
As the holiday season prepares to kick off in earnest, antivirus researchers have discovered a new hybrid computer virus
that could deliver a malicious
payload to users' hard drives on December 25th.
The virus, known as W97M.Prilissa.A, or simply Prilissa, infects users
of Windows 95 or 98 through Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) Word documents, spreading itself
by way of an MS Outlook e-mail attachment. Prilissa will then be sent
out to the first e-mail 50 addresses in the infected user's address
book, with the message "this document is very Important and you've GOT
to read this!!!"
According to researchers at Symantec (Nasdaq: SYMC)
Corp. (Nasdaq: SYMC), Prilissa activates on Christmas Day, first
displaying a message -- "Vine...Vide...Vice...Moslem Power Never
End...Your Computer Have Just Been Terminated By -= CyberNET =- Virus!!" --
then
overwriting the AUTOEXEC.BAT file to format the user's hard drive.
Macro Variant and Heuristic Technology
"Our customers can be assured that by continuing to update their definitions on a regular basis, they will be protected with the industry's most advanced anti-virus technology," stated Vincent Weafer, director of Symantec's AntiVirus Research Center. Through its macro variant and heuristic technology, Symantec detected W97M.Prilissa.A, and has documented the infection as a variant of the W97M.AntiSocial.G and W97M.Melissa viruses.
"Macro variant technology analyzes the actions and commands used by a set of viruses and leverages this to detect unknown viruses with the same characteristics," said a Symantec company statement. "Heuristic technology enables virus detection by analyzing a multitude of viruses, and identifying certain common traits that all viruses share."
Networked Associates
Symantec's Norton AntiVirus product uses these technologies to protect users, but they are not alone in the utility software market. Network Associates, Inc. (Nasdaq: SYMC), which claims to have discovered the virus last week, offers protection through various antivirus products.
The company, which has already been receiving some infection notices from businesses in the Unites States and across Europe, just announced that an enhanced version of its McAfee GroupShield for Lotus Notes software for e-business has been made available. The software package brings the Network Associates Virulogic detection technology to professional e-commerce users of Lotus Notes.
"GroupShield for Notes 4.5 is formulated to protect the most demanding application environments that companies rely on to drive their e-business, including Notes server clusters," stated Sal Viveros, group-marketing manager for McAfee Total Virus Defense for Network Associates. "While e-mail remains the most common vehicle for virus proliferation, Network Associates is providing best-of-breed groupware anti-virus protection for our Notes R5 customers so they can do business effectively, while maintaining a secure Notes environment."
Users are encouraged to check with the manufacturer of their antivirus solutions for Prilissa fix information.
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