WASHINGTON DC Beware, a new variant of the MyDoom Virus is on the loose and has trigged a National Cyber Alert from US-CERT. In addition to infecting your computer and emailing itself to other machines, the virus may open a backdoor that could make your machine vulnerable to future attacks.
Description
This variant of MyDoom (known as MyDoom.M or MyDoom.O) is
significant because it seems to be conducting searches on
addresses it harvests from infected computers. Therefore, not
only is email activity affected, response times in many popular
search engines may be dramatically reduced.
Solution: Avoid opening email attachments
Be sure you know the source of an attachment before opening it.
Also remember that it is not enough that the mail originated from
an email address you recognize. Many viruses spread precisely
because they originate from a familiar email address.
Maintain updated anti-virus software
It is important that you use antivirus software and keep it up to
date. Most antivirus software vendors frequently release updated
information, tools, or virus databases to help detect and recover
from virus infections. Many antivirus packages support automatic
updates of virus definitions. US-CERT recommends using these
automatic updates when possible.
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