March 27, 1999
E-Mail Virus Spreads on Internet,
Could Tie Up Traffic if Unstopped
By MARK BOSLET
Dow Jones Newswires
PALO ALTO, Calif. -- A computer virus that spread quickly across the Internet on
Friday afternoon shut down e-mail servers at some companies and overloaded
others
with infected e-mail, industry executives said.
Some executives fear the virus, which is dubbed Melissa and which preys on
Microsoft Corp.'s Word software, could tie up traffic on the Internet on Monday
if
it is unstopped.
The virus enters a computer in an e-mail message
labeled "Important Message From." The message also
includes the apparent sender's name.
Melissa replicates itself when a computer user opens
the e-mail and a Word-based attachment it contains.
Once open and active, the virus sends infected e-mail to 50 new recipients it
finds in
the computer owner's address book.
The virus shut down e-mail servers at Microsoft late Friday and hampered
operations at other companies, such as Lucent Technologies Inc. said Eric
Allman,
chief technology officer at Send Mail Inc. Send Mail makes e-mail routing
software
used widely on the Internet.
Representatives from Microsoft and Lucent could not be reached for comment.
The body of the infected e-mail document reads: "Here's the document you asked
for. Don't show it to anyone else."
Mr. Allman said Send Mail came up with a program to prevent the virus' spread.
It
simply identifies an e-mail with the label "Important Message From" and returns
it
to the sender. The program is available for download from the Send Mail website.
"Monday could be seriously painful for the Internet" if lots of users open and
read
e-mail messages infected with Melissa, Mr. Allman said.
Copyright © 1999 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
