Beware e-mails that open can of worms

If you gauge your popularity by the number of e-mails you receive, your ego must have received a boost this week - until you realised that the messages were two computer viruses that have clogged up systems all over the world by sending scores of e-mails to the same addresses.

The viruses come under the innocent subject title "hi", "hello" or "test" and the e-mails are usually from e-mail addresses you do not recognise.

Thousands of e-mails triggered by the worm were bombarding networks within hours of its discovery on Monday. In the US and Europe, its spread is now starting to slow down after infecting hundreds of thousands of computers.

According to E-shore technical operations manager Ruben Azzopardi, these nasty viruses, Novarg or Mydoom and Bagle, are clogging up networks in Malta and causing problems worldwide.

E-shore, the business arm of Terranet Ltd, a fully owned subsidiary of Maltacom, provides corporate business solutions for internet access and websites.

Mr Azzopardi said the objective of these viruses was to create a denial of service, slowing the system and clogging up people's computer networks.

As well as sending spam e-mail itself, which is annoying, infected PCs launch denial of service attacks on e-mail servers, because the servers become overloaded.

"Basically what is happening is that whoever is infected with the virus will start to unknowingly spread it to a list of contacts. Since the sender is falsified it is impossible to know where the e-mail really came from," he explained.

Mydoom is the latest rapidly spreading worm which international computer experts believe is bigger and faster that its predecessor Sobig.

Many of these e-mails look like they have been sent from people you know so as to fool you into opening the attachment. Our curiosity means we cannot resist opening the file, or a can of worms, as it were.

Mr Azzopardi said that although these viruses were mild compared with the major problems all internet users in Malta faced last September with the Naachi virus, they were still having significant impact.

E-shore has also received an advisory from the American Computer Emergency Response Team warning them of these two mass-mailing viruses, W32/Bagle and W32/Novarg.

"We are hoping that the situation will be brought under control in a few weeks' time. However, since most people do not have an anti-virus program it can take time to get rid of it completely," he said.

Protect yourself from viruses

¤ Home users should install an anti-virus program and a personal firewall. It is a software program that provides basic security. It is not as sophisticated as a "real" firewall but it does the job for home users.

¤ Business users should also have anti-virus software and a firewall. It is important that even small businesses protect their network assets.

¤ Keep it up to date. Get the latest patches and updates for your operating system.

¤ Never automatically open e-mail attachments. Be aware these viruses spread by "social engineering" - receivers opening unsolicited attachments such as joke e-mails.

¤ Download or purchase software from trusted, reputable sources.

¤ Make backups of important files.