SINGAPORE -- April 10, 2002

Date:	April 10, 2002
Name:	W32.Aphex@mm or W32.Aplore@mm.
Threat Assessment:	Level 2 (currently not widespread)
Description	It is a mass-mailing worm that emails itself to all email addresses in the Microsoft Outlook address book.  It also uses IRC and AOL Instant Messenger (AIM) to spread itself.  This reflects the latest trend where virus writers are using a combination of instant messaging and social engineering to spread viruses. Microsoft Outlook functionality The email has the following characteristics (The subject and message each consist of only a period): Subject: . Message: . Attachment:  Psecure20x-cgi-install.version.6.01.bin.hx.com AOL Instant Messenger (AIM) functionality The worm waits for you to connect to AIM.  It then sends one of the following one-line messages to your AIM contacts: btw, download this I wanted to show you this please check out hey go to see if you can get this to work this is cool tell me what you think about try this I almost forgot about I like this What about Have you seen Interesting lol wow whoa neat cool hmm psst hehe haha silly weird
Definitions From Symantec	Available.
Symantec Security Response	Symantec Security Response 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 Symantec Security Response. The centre’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, Symantec Security Response develops identification and detection for these viruses and provides either a repair or delete operation, thus keeping users protected against the latest virus threats http://securityresponse.symantec.com.
Symantec:	Symantec, the world leader in Internet security technology, provides a broad range of content and network security software and appliance solutions to individuals, enterprises and service providers. The company is a leading provider of client, gateway and server security solutions for virus protection, firewall and virtual private network, vulnerability management, intrusion detection, Internet content and e-mail filtering, remote management technologies and security services to enterprises and service providers around the world.  Symantec’s Norton brand of consumer security products is a leader in worldwide retail sales and industry awards.  Headquartered in Cupertino, Calif., Symantec has worldwide operations in 38 countries.  For more information, please visit www.symantec.com.