F-Secure Warns of E-Mail Worm

January 22, 2001

JAN 22, 2001, M2 Communications - The security technology company F-Secure Corp has issued a warning to computer users about an e-mail worm currently spreading globally.

The Melissa.W worm, a version of the first mass e-mail virus Melissa, is spreading in an attachment called Anniv.doc. Although the attachment is in Microsoft Word 2001 for Macintosh format, the worm will also affect users of older versions of Word on both Macintosh and Windows systems.

In addition F-Secure warns that several anti-virus programs might not be able to scan for the virus because it is written in the latest version of Word.

According to the company the worst effects of Melissa.W are the same as for Melissa's versions usually - the overloading of e-mail servers with huge traffic volumes and the e-mailing of confidential Word documents to a wide audience.