Several people at my work have recieved this today. New Mydoom worm identified McAfee warns that new e-mail worm infects computers via link in text rather than attachment. November 9, 2004: 7:40 AM EST NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - Anti-virus software manufacturer McAfee Inc. is warning about a new version of the Mydoom worm that infects computers of people who click on a link of an e-mail they receive. The new version is a mass-mailing worm that does not contain an attachment, as some earlier versions of the worm program have done. A worm is a self-replicating computer program that -- like a computer virus -- can cause damage to a computer's software by attaching itself to programs. The new Mydoom e-mail messages direct users to click on a link, directing them to an infected machine. Following the hyperlink results in an infection occurring on the target victim's system. Some of the e-mail transmissions appear to be from PayPal, the online payment system that is part of eBay. The text of the e-mail includes the following: "Congratulations! PayPal has successfully charged $175 to your credit card. Your order tracking number is A866DEC0, and your item will be shipped within three business days. "To see details please click this link." The program also harvests addresses from local files and then uses the harvested addresses in the "from" field to send itself. Some of those e-mail messages contain the following: "Hi! I am looking for new friends. "My name is Jane, I am from Miami, FL. "See my homepage with my weblog and last webcam photos! See you!" McAfee says so far it has received approximately 100 reports of the virus being stopped or infecting users. It raised its risk assessment on the new Mydoom virus to medium. Link
I'll never understand why people open email from addresses they don't recognize. With strange subject lines. Just delete it.
