Clark companies on guard versus new computer virus

CLARK FIELD, Pampanga — Internet users in this special economic zone have become wary of a new e-mail virus that has reportedly damaged security settings of thousands of computers worldwide since last Dec. 21.

The virus, called Yaha.K, is a mass mailing worm affecting computers using Windows. The anti-virus software firm F-Secure has reportedly given it the second highest danger rating.

Investors here have received the warning via e-mails from their mother-firms.

"People are being advised not to open any e-mail which has attachments ending with .scr, .exe and .com. ‘I Love You’ Yaha.K is a new version of the Yaha worm which first appeared (last) February. It is relatively harmless, compared to more destructive viruses," one of the e-mailed warnings said.

But the virus "can compromise a computer’s security settings by stopping anti-virus programs and shutting down firewalls," it added.

The new variant looks for e-mail addresses in the Windows address book and sends itself to all the addresses it finds. In an attempt to trick people, the virus composes different types of e-mails, using subject lines such as I Love You, Patch for Klez.H and Free Demo Game.

MessageLabs, which scans e-mail messages for viruses, said it first detected the worm in Kuwait. Since then, it has been spotted in 96 countries, predominantly in the United Kingdom and the Netherlands. Overall, the company has so far blocked 21,295 copies of the worm.