Computer Associates Warns Of First Virus Of 2001

Computer Associates has issued the first virus
warning of 2001 to its customers, advising them of a low-to-medium
risk e-mail worm called Tqll-A.

Also known as VBS/Tqll-A, the virus is said to be the latest
MS-Outlook-based e-mail worm threat.

CA says that Tqll-A arrives as an e-mail with the subject - "New
Year!" with the body of the message reading, "Wow Happy New Year !"
and containing an attachment called "happynewyear.txt.vbs."

On execution, the worm installs and launches a backdoor
Trojan - detected as Backdoor/Psychware.G.Server - on the infected
system, then sends itself as an attachment to every address listed in
an infected user's MS-Outlook address book.

CA advises that the Trojan, executing as "3k.exe", attempts to
download the file "Teen.exe" from several Internet sites.

Ian Hameroff, the IT security firm's business manager, said that
Tqll- A attempts to prey on a computer user's holiday spirit.

"Computer users should start the new year off with a resolution to
protect themselves completely from the threat of virus attacks," he
said.

CA's Web site is at http://ca.com.