The Badtrans virus, which broke over the weekend, has been
spreading virulently across the Internet.
Reports from anti-virus specialist MessageLabs suggest that this
latest attack could be worse than Sircam, currently the most
damaging Internet virus.
Badtrans is a mass mailing virus that attempts to replicate using
Microsoft Outlook to reply to unread e-mail messages.
Speaking on 26 November, Mark Summer, chief technology officer at
MessageLabs said the company's Internet tracking service, SkyScan
AV service was monitoring 100 new instances of the virus every
minute.
Summer said: "On a normal day we clear about 4.5 million e-mail
messages, of which 10,000 would contain viruses."On Monday [26
November] morning alone, the service has already hit the 10,000
watershed," said Summer. "At midday today we already hit 10,000 and
the virus has spread to 37 countries."
This latest attack is the first MessageLabs has seen which
replicates by sending replies to unread e-mail.
Summer said this was very worrying. His own e-mail basket contained
more than 4,000 unread messages and in the US, people would be
coming back to work after the Thanksgiving holiday to an inbox full
of unread e-mail.
The virus also contains a Trojan Horse payload designed to capture
user keyboard strokes.