12 Millennium Viruses Identified
As employees return to work on Monday, virus watchers fear that many will return to find that a trojan virus has infected their system. Via e-mail or the Internet, these viruses can destroy an entire system without being detected by anti-virus programs such as Norton and McAfee.
Twelve viruses have been identified as millennium bugs set to go into action on January 1, 2000. The most dangerous of these viruses is named Zelu.Trojan, which can destroy every file on an infected machine. Coming as an apparent Y2K fix entitled Y2K.exe, this virus can swiftly move through your system, destroying everything in its path.
Other viruses include Babylonia, Count2K, Esmerelda.807, Spaces.1633, and Lucky 2000.
Many of these viruses can spread themselves by using a person's address book and sending itself to everyone on that list. To prevent such widespread viral attacks, many larger organizations, including several banks and the FBI, have opted to shut down their e-mail services for the next few days as a prevention measure. Some do not agree with this policy, however many feel that it is a good precautionary measure for protecting vital business data.
Security experts urge everyone to make sure their virus patterns are current and up-to-date to prevent any attack on their system. While virus programs can detect known virii and eliminate them, there is no telling what other viruses may be set to activate on the first of the year. They suggest that users be careful when opening attachments and to delete attachments from unknown senders to assure that your system is protected against attacks from a malicious user.
Many virus pattern updates and trojan cleaners can be downloaded from FileForum.com or your anti-virus software homepage.