ILOVEYOU Virus Mutating - 10 Variants; More To Come

It's now clear that the original ILOVEYOU worm, apparently created by a 23- year-old Filipino and e-mailed out at around 03:00 GMT Thursday, is the worst virus outbreak on record.

Latest reports from Symantec (http://www.symantec.com ) confirm that 10 variants, other than the original, are now in active circulation, masquerading as jokes, Mother's day gift orders, for example.

Almost all the variants, the IT security firm says, have been designed to bypass anti-virus and similar protection software that has been updated to handle the original "killa from Manila" worm.

The FBI, assisted by Interpol, the international police organization, are now hot on the trail of the Filipino after Supernet, a Philippines Internet service provider (ISP), confirmed earlier today that the "original" worm copies had been traced to two of its e-mail addresses - [email protected] and [email protected] .

Earlier indications that the worm was designed to wipe multimedia files, transmit IDs and passwords to the super.net e-mail addresses - and cause havoc on top of the wholesale downing of Internet e-mail services - have now been confirmed.

McAfee.com (http://www.mcafee.com ) reports that at least 60 percent of the Fortune 100 companies in the US have been affected in some way by the virus and its variants.

The sheer scale of the damage and the speed with which it zipped around the world was caused, the firm said, by the simple fact that it replicates to all addresses in the host users' Outlook directory.

In contrast, Melissa, which wrought havoc in March of last year, "only" sent itself to the first 50 users in a recipient's directory.

That fact, coupled with the surge in numbers of company-connected Internet users, seems to account for this latest attack's ferocity.

Latest victims of the love bug include AT&T and even Capital Hill, while, in the UK, Network Associates (http://www.nai.com ) has confirmed that around 30 percent of company e-mail systems have been affected to a greater or lesser degree by the worm.

On the Hill, House Republican Conference Chairman J.C. Watts, Jr. (R-Okla.) said that ILOVEYOU virus is exactly the reason Speaker Hastert created the Cyber Security Team in Congress.

"As chairman, I will continue to work with cyber security experts to investigate how a problem like this can be averted in the future," he said, adding that, from Capitol Hill to the British Parliament, offices were electronically paralyzed as a result of one e-mail message invading the world's computers.

"Many governments and businesses shut down as a result of this destructive virus. We need to have better resources and greater awareness in the public and private sectors so that situations like the 'I Love You' bug can be intercepted before damage is done," he said.

The House Republican Cyber Security Team was created in February to increase public awareness on how Internet users could protect themselves. The members represent seven House committees and various regions of America.

While PC users have been devastated by the worm, Apple Mac users are relatively immune to the effects of the worm. The Reuters newswire, however, says that Mac users running the latest Microsoft Windows emulation packages could be hit by some features.

Newsbytes understands that, while the virus cannot replicate itself on a Mac, it can execute under Windows to delete various multimedia files, including desktop publishing and music MP3 files.

The good news for Mac owners is that, even if their machines are running emulators and their computer is infected by the worm, only the Windows/PC partitions will be affected - their Mac files will remain intact.

Steve Clack, sales director with Sybari Software (http://www.sybari.com ), said that server-based packages, such the firm's Antigen for Exchange & Lotus Notes, can stop worms such as ILOVEYOU dead in their tracks.

These content filtering applications, he told Newsbytes, are designed to work alongside regular anti-virus packages and provide an additional line of defense for company e-mail system users.

"Over the past few months, we've communicated the message about the power of Antigen. Many users have asked why they need protection on the desktop and server. Our response has been consistent - that the old paradigm has changed to the new," he said.

Clack went on to say that, as many company e-mail users found out last year with Melissa, and now with the ILOVEYOU virus, "just having a product that protects your desktop and server is not enough."

The humor of the ILOVEYOU virus situation was not lost on USA Today (http://www.usatoday.com ), which quoted Ted Canova, news director of station WCCO-TV in Minneapolis, as saying that, when he returned to his desk after an absence of just 30 minutes, he found 177 people who were in love with him.

This was on top of the 200-plus people who stated their love for him when he signed on in the morning.

Reported by Newsbytes.com, http://www.newsbytes.com.