'I Love You' Virus Hits Computers
'I Love You' Virus Hits Computers
14:57EDT
By BRUCE MEYERSON
AP Business Writer
05/04/00
A new software virus spread quickly around the world today, swamping U.S.
computer networks with e-mails entitled "ILOVEYOU'' after crippling
government and business computers in Asia and Europe.
Experts said they were stunned by the speed and wide reach of the virus --
which struck members of U.S. Congress and British parliament -- and warned
computer users not to open the "LOVELETTER'' attachment that comes with the
contaminated e-mail. The FBI said it opened a criminal investigation.
"It appears to be the same sort of class of virus as Melissa,'' the e-mail
virus that overwhelmed computer systems around the world about a year ago,
said Bill Pollack, spokesman for the CERT Coordination Center in Pittsburgh,
a government-chartered computer security team.
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But the new virus, which uses the Outlook e-mail program from Microsoft to
spread, also may infect other types of files stored on desktop computers and
network servers, CERT reported on its telephone hotline. According to other
reports, the virus may rename or damage those files.
FBI spokeswoman Debbie Weierman said in Washington that the bureau has
opened a criminal investigation of the virus attack and is assessing its
impact domestically and internationally. She would not say which field
office is leading the investigation.
By midafternoon Eastern time, a virus scanning system provided on the
Internet by the Trend Micro computer security company had already detected
almost 1.2 million infected computer files around the world, including more
than 900,000 in the United States.
In Britain, about 30 percent of company e-mail systems were brought down by
the virus, according to Network Associates, another computer security firm.
In Sweden, the tally was 80 percent.
Avoiding the "ILOVELYOU" virus [PARA]Like Melissa and other e-mail viruses,
"ILOVEYOU" spreads by e-mail attachment, not the e-mail itself. Simply
reading the e-mail is not dangerous. To avoid infecting your computer and
potentially passing on the virus to others, do not open any attachment that
comes with the e-mail titled "ILOVEYOU." That's also a smart practice for
e-mail attachments that come from any untrusted source.
Much like Melissa, the "love bug'' spreads by infiltrating a computer user's
address book and sending copies of itself to that person's contacts.
However, the new virus also seemed to be using instant messaging or
"Internet chat'' systems such as ICQ to spread, Computer Associates
reported.
The virus appeared in Hong Kong late in the afternoon, spreading throughout
e-mail systems once a user opened one of the contaminated messages. It later
moved into European parliamentary houses and through the high-tech systems
of big companies and financial traders.
"I have to tell you that, sadly, this affectionate greeting contains a virus
which has immobilized the House's internal communication system,'' said
Margaret Beckett, leader of Britain's House of Commons. "This means that no
member can receive e-mails from outside, nor indeed can we communicate with
each other by e-mail.''
In the United States, the "love bug'' shut down the Florida Lottery's e-mail
system, said lottery spokesman Leo DiBenigno. The lottery also had problems
with its Web site, but those were determined to be unrelated to the virus.
In Asia, Dow Jones Newswires and the Asian Wall Street Journal were among
the victims. The bug affected only e-mail and did not prevent Dow Jones
Newswires from distributing financial information to traders. The Asian Wall
Street Journal would have no problems publishing, officials there said.
But the e-mail systems went wild.
"It crashed all the computers,'' said Daphne Ghesquiere, a Dow Jones
spokeswoman in Hong Kong. "You get the message and the topic says ILOVEYOU,
and I was among the stupid ones to open it. I got about five at one time and
I was suspicious, but one was from Dow Jones Newswires, so I opened it.''
Once the message was opened, Ghesquiere said, it began sending the virus to
other e-mail addresses within the Dow Jones computers, blocking people's
ability to send and receive e-mail. Victims sometimes received dozens of
e-mails, all contaminated.
"I have no idea how it got through the firewall,'' Ghesquiere said. "It's
supposed to be protected.''
The virus posed its biggest threat to corporate users, because it apparently
had the ability to spread to the first 300 e-mail addresses in affected
accounts, virus expert Ross Wilson said.
"It's not pretty,'' said Wilson, the Singapore-based Southeast Asia director
of Symantec, a U.S.-based company that makes anti-virus software. "It's got
the capability of spreading very, very quickly.''
In Denmark, the parliament, telecom company Tele Danmark, channel TV2 and
the Environment and Energy Ministry were all affected starting this morning.
"We have no clue how it got in,'' said Hugo Praestegaard of the Environment
and Energy Ministry.
The virus hit the Swiss federal government computer network late in the
morning, said Claudio Frigerio of the Federal Office for Information
Technology in Bern. The system was switched off immediately to stop the
virus from spreading.
Bank, hospital and national television e-mail networks in Switzerland were
also affected, Frigerio said.
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