Life Stages virus mostly spares Asia

From...

June 21, 2000
Web posted at: 11:04 a.m. EDT (1504 GMT)

by Stephen Lawson

(IDG) -- The "Life Stages" worm that first hit U.S. e-mail systems on Saturday hit Asia on Tuesday, spreading more slowly than the Love Bug virus of several weeks ago but packing a punch on some of the affected computer systems.

The virus can change or hide a computer's Windows registration files, possibly making it impossible to start up the system, according to antivirus vendor Symantec. Like the Love Bug, it is a Visual Basic worm that spreads itself by stealing e-mail addresses from programs such as Microsoft 's Outlook and Internet Relay Chat software and forwarding itself in e-mail messages to those addresses, Symantec said.

	MESSAGE BOARD
Insurgency
	ALSO
When it comes to security, there's no such thing as crying wolf

Trend Micro, an antivirus software company based in Tokyo, by late Tuesday in Asia had received reports of infection from 118 customers worldwide, with an estimated 73,068 computers affected, according to Bernard Bisuna, manager of Trend Micro's technical support center in Quezon City, Philippines.

'Compared to Love Bug, this is a small outbreak,' Bisuna added.

Antivirus vendor McAfee Alert, a division of Network Associates, on Tuesday upgraded its rating of the worm's risk from medium to high. It had received reports of the virus from more than 100 customer sites, according to a McAfee statement. The virus could suck up PC memory resources and cause e-mail storms that slow down networks, the company said.

The virus is activated through a file called LIFE_STAGES.TXT.SHS, which is distributed as an attachment to email messages with one of several subjects, including 'Funny,' 'Jokes,' and 'Life stages,' according to a Symantec statement. Once activated, it modifies the Windows registration files of a PC to make the system unstable or even render it unable to start up, the company said.

MORE COMPUTING INTELLIGENCE

IDG.net home page

Make your PC work better with these tips

ITWorld.com

E-BusinessWorld

TechInformer: The Thinking Internaut's Guide to the Tech Industry

Reviews & in-depth info at IDG.net

How-to and advice from IDG.net

Download free PC software from PCWorld.com

Questions about computers? Let IDG.net's editors help you

Product reviews and computing news from IDG.net

Search IDG.net in 12 languages

News Radio

Fusion audio primers

Computerworld Minute

However, with the earlier virus fresh in their minds, users seem to have been wary of this worm, according to officials at Symantec and Trend Micro.

'The awareness of viruses right now is higher than before, and people are looking closely at their traffic,' said Daniel Cheng, Symantec's general manager for Hong Kong and the People's Republic of China, in Beijing.

Symantec had reports of the virus from only a handful of customers in Australia and one in the Philippines, Cheng said. In Asia, Trend Micro had reports of infection from only eight customers, Bisuna said.

Timing may have been critical in the region's response to this virus, according to Nancy Ho, Hong Kong marketing manager for Trend Micro. 'For companies in Hong Kong, they may have already known there was a virus happening in the U.S., so they could make some precaution,' Ho said.

However, the highly publicized Love Bug may also have changed users' perceptions for good, she added. 'Many users are much more aware of how serious a virus is and are more careful than before in opening an attachment,' Ho said.

Officials at Internet portal companies China.com and Yahoo Asia, in Hong Kong, said they had seen no impact from the worm. In addition, though Life Stages can cause damage, its impact is far more tame than that of the Love Bug virus, Symantec's Cheng said.

'The Love Bug would do a lot more damage than this one, because it damaged a lot of files, like MPEG and MP3 files,' Cheng said.

Symantec has updated its antivirus software to deal with the worm and made the update available to its customers for downloading from its Web site. An update for other users will be available from the Web site in one or two days, Cheng said. Trend also has made an update available to its customers.

'Stages' virus assails major U.S. businesses
June 20, 2000
Pennsylvania makes spreading computer viruses criminal
June 1, 2000
New strain of virus hits computer e-mail
May 19, 2000
Windows' popularity makes it easy target to hackers
May 16, 2000
ActiveX flaw can help spread viruses
May 15, 2000

'Stages' e-mail virus spreading rapidly
(Computerworld)
Europe sees little action from Life Stages virus
(IDG.net)
'Love Bug' investigation wrapping up in Philippines
(Computerworld)
CA warns of another Visual Basic worm
(IDG.net)
Learning from the Love Bug
(PCWorld.com)

Network Associates
Symantec
Trend Micro

Note: Pages will open in a new browser window

External sites are not endorsed by CNN Interactive.