New Self-Mutating Variant Of The Loveletter Virus Renders PC Inoperable

CUPERTINO, Calif. - May 18, 2000 - Symantec Corp. (NASDAQ: SYMC) today announced that researchers at the Symantec AntiVirus Research Center have identified VBS.LoveLetter.FW.A - a polymorphic variant of the LoveLetter virus with an extremely destructive payload.

Characteristics Of Infection
VBS.LoveLetter.FW.A is an Internet worm that uses Microsoft Outlook to spread itself as an attachment with the subject line "FW: [attached file name] along with the attachment listed in the subject line.

The virus randomly chooses a recently opened file from the Start/Document folder in the Microsoft Start menu and attaches it to the email as a .vbs file. Each time the virus spreads, it mutates itself to evade detection.

Payload
Preliminary findings indicate that the worm sends a mutated version of itself to all addresses in the computer user's Outlook address book causing mail servers to clog. Additionally, once the attachment is opened, the virus overwrites numerous files and renders the computer inoperable. This affects both local and network drives, including mapped networked drives where the user has write access rights.

Virus Threat Severity Assessment
VBS.LoveLetter.FW.A is currently classified as a category four alert -- Dangerous threat type that is difficult to contain. The SARC Threat Severity Assessment evaluates computer threats and classifies them into one of five categories, with Category 5 being the most severe, and Category 1 the least severe.

Recommendations/Protection
As a first line of defense, SARC recommends administrators filter for emails with a subject line containing the word "FW" along with an attachment with a .vbs extension.

Symantec AntiVirus Research Center
SARC is one of the industry's largest dedicated team of virus experts. With offices located in the United States, Japan, Australia, and the Netherlands, the sun never sets on SARC. The center's mission is to provide swift, global responses to computer virus threats, proactively research and develop technologies that eliminate such threats, and educate the public on safe computing practices. As new computer viruses appear, SARC develops identification and detection for these viruses, and provides either a repair or delete operation, thus keeping users protected against the latest virus threats.

About Symantec
Symantec, a world leader in Internet security technology, provides content security solutions to enterprise organisations and helps companies manage and support workforces that use computers and other mobile devices.

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