An e-mail virus has swept the world in the last 48 hours and is wreaking havoc on computers that use Microsoft Operating Systems, including Eugene’s city government systems and many machines at the University.
Called the “Love Bug” virus, the deviant file, which may have originated in the Philippines, has circled the globe via e-mail.
Victims receive an e-mail with the subject line “ILOVEYOU.” The text of the message contains an attachment labeled “LOVELETTER.” Once that document is opened, the virus attacks. At least one mutation of the virus has already appeared. E-mails with a subject line of “Joke” and an attachment of “Really Funny,” will cause the same damage as the “Love Bug.”
“When you execute this script, it starts doing all kinds of heinous stuff,” said Spencer Smith, a University microcomputer support specialist who has been working on the problem on campus .
Users of Microsoft Windows 95 and 98 can expect the virus to create copies of itself and forward them to everyone in the users Microsoft Outlook address book.
The virus will reset a computer’s Web browser settings and change the home page to a site that automatically downloads more virus codes.
Users who try to reboot their machines after contracting the virus will find that all of their image and audio files, such as JPEGs and MP3s, have been replaced with more copies of the virus, Smith said.
Avoiding the virus is actually simple, he emphasized.
“The big thing is don’t open an attachment from anybody,” Smith said. “The only way you will affect your machine is by double-clicking on the ‘LOVELETTER’ attachment.”
The virus affects only computers running Microsoft operating systems; UNIX and Macintosh systems are unaffected by the virus, he said.
“A preponderance of (University computer users) are running Windows 95, 98 and NT,” Smith said.
The computing center had received at least 50 phone calls late Thursday from University computer users who had contracted the virus. Most of the problems involve problems with individual machines, Smith said.
The Love Bug forced the Eugene city government to cut the link between the e-mail system and the Internet. As many as 100 city employees opened the “LOVELETTER,” releasing the virus.
There is a procedure computer users who have the virus can do to rid their machines of the virus and delete infected files, Smith said. It can be found on the McAfee Web site, www.mcafee.com.
A Microsoft spokeswoman in Portland said the company has also received many calls. She added, “Microsoft is working closely with the anti-virus community. The virus is still being investigated.”
The Federal Bureau of Investigation has opened a criminal investigation of the virus attack.
The Love Bug is very similar to the Melissa computer virus that caused $80 million in damage in the United States in March 1999.
“The protocols and the way the code works is pretty well-designed,” Smith said. But it is also relatively easy to create a virus such as the Love Bug. All the knowledge required to create it is available on the Internet, he said.
Smith predicts the virus will continue to cause problems for as long as people have it on their computers. Experts have called the Love Bug one of the fastest spreading computer viruses the world has ever seen.