> What's the skinny on this "melissa" virus that managed to make it to the
> national newscast this morning?
It is REAL. It can only do anything to your computer >> IF <<, you open the
Microsoft Word document that is attached to the message >> AND << you have
Word 97 or later.
It is a Word virus that uses a version of the macro language that did not
exist yet in Word 6 or Word 95.
When you open the Word document, the macro attaches itself to your copy of
Word and then (if you have Microsoft Outlook installed) sends out more
copies of itself to the first 50 names in each of your phone books. It also
sends random word documents from those you have saved on your hard drive
that are infected with the virus.
Even if you do not have Outlook, documents that you create in Word will
still be infected and will infect any copy of Word that is used to open it.
The virus pulls the usual tricks in Word so that you cannot see it doing
it's stuff.
It also puts a scrabble quote from The Simpsons into new documents that you
create at specific times.
All the major virus software makers already have new configuration files
that will take care of it available for downloading.
|