New variants of ILOVEYOU bug. (fwd)

[Heiko Recktenwald <uzs106@ibm.rhrz.uni-bonn.de>]

Anti-virus experts say computer administrators around the 
world are continuing to fight the Love Bug. It now comes in 
five flavors, including the more dangerous "Mother's Day" 
mutation, which tries to trick victims into opening an 
attachment by claiming it's a bill for diamonds purchased 
at a special Mother's Day price.        "We've seen the 
situation just get worse in Asia and Europe during Friday," 
said Mikko Hypponen, manager of anti-virus research at 
F-Secure Corp. "With four new variants out after the 
original one, it's getting more and more difficult for end 
users to know which e-mail to avoid."     The latest 
variant might cause the most trouble. It attempts to prey 
on consumer fears of erroneous credit card charges and 
arrives with the subject line "Mother's Day Order 
Confirmation." The body of the message then tells the 
potential victim: "We have proceeded to charge your credit 
card for the amount of $326.92 for the mothers day diamond 
special. We have attached a detailed invoice to this email. 
Please print out the attachment and keep it in a safe 
place. Thanks Again and Have a Happy Mothers Day! 
mothersday@subdimension.com."     The attached file, 
mothersday.vbs, is very similar to the original ILOVEYOU 
virus but is considerably more destructive. It sets out to 
delete all .INI and .BAT files from all local and network 
drives. Removing such files could make it impossible to 
restart a victim's computer.        "With only eight days 
to go until Mother's Day, this attack is quite credible," 
Hypponen said.