Singapore - May 19, 2000 - Symantec Corporation today announced that researchers at the Symantec AntiVirus Research Center have identified VBS.NewLove.A - a polymorphic variant of the LoveLetter virus with an extremely destructive payload.

      
     Commenting on the new version, Symantec's Senior Regional Director for      South East Asia Ross Wilson said, "So far we have not had any reports    of infections in the Asia Pacific but this virus could spread rapidly. Hence users need to beware, ensure that they delete any e-mails with attachments that have the .vbs extention and download the latest virus updates."
    
     Characteristics Of Infection
     VBS.NewLove.A is an Internet worm that uses Microsoft Outlook to
     spread itself as an attachment with the subject line "FW: [attached
     file name] along with the attachment listed in the subject line.
    
     The virus randomly chooses a recently opened file from the
     Start/Document folder in the Microsoft Start menu and attaches it to
     the email as a .vbs file.  Each time the virus spreads, it mutates
     itself to evade detection.
    
     Payload
     Preliminary findings indicate that the worm sends a mutated version of
     itself to all addresses in the computer user's Outlook address book
     causing mail servers to clog.   Additionally, once the attachment is
     opened, the virus overwrites numerous files and renders the computer
     inoperable.  This affects both local and network drives, including
     mapped networked drives where the user has write access rights.
    
     Virus Threat Severity Assessment
     VBS.NewLove.A is currently classified as a category four alert --
     Dangerous threat type that is difficult to contain.   The SARC Threat
     Severity Assessment evaluates computer threats and classifies them
     into one of five categories, with Category 5 being the most severe,
     and Category 1 the least severe.
    
     Recommendations/Protection
     As a first line of defense, SARC recommends administrators filter for
     emails with a subject line containing the word "FW" along with an
     attachment with a .vbs extension.
    
     Symantec AntiVirus Research Center
     SARC is one of the industry's largest dedicated team of virus experts.
      With offices located in the United States, Japan, Australia, and the
     Netherlands, the sun never sets on SARC.  The center's mission is to
     provide swift, global responses to computer virus threats, proactively
     research and develop technologies that eliminate such threats, and
     educate the public on safe computing practices.  As new computer
     viruses appear, SARC develops identification and detection for these
     viruses, and provides either a repair or delete operation, thus
     keeping users protected against the latest virus threats.
    
     About Symantec
     Symantec Corporation helps make computer users productive and keep
     their systems safe and reliable anywhere, anytime. A world leader in
     Internet security technology, Symantec provides a broad range of
     content security solutions to individuals and companies. The company
     is a leading provider of anti-virus protection, Internet content and
     e-mail filtering, and mobile code detection technologies to enterprise
     customers. Headquartered in Cupertino, California, Symantec has
     worldwide operations in more than 24 countries.

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