A new Windows-only virus has been agressively spreading over the last 48 hours. It is been dubbed the MyDoom or Novarg virus and more details can be found at Symantec. It is the most likely cause for the flood of "Mail delivery failed" messages you are likely receiving. You need take no action and this virus cannot infect Macintosh computers.
Reuters also has an article on the virus: "At risk are computers running the latest versions of Microsoft's Windows programs and any e-mail program. The worm doesn't exploit any flaws in Windows, but rather is designed to entice recipients of an e-mail to open an attached file and run programs contained in the attachment. The mass-mailing worm that arrives as an attachment with an .exe, .scr, .zip or .pif extension and can have a subject line of 'test' or 'status.' Users who receive the worm and simply ignore or delete it will be able to avoid any damage. MyDoom also mails itself out to addresses in the victim's computer and is clogging mail servers and degrading network performance at companies, experts said. The worm appears to have a random sender's address and subject line and sometimes contains an error message such as 'The message cannot be represented in 7-bit ASCII and has been sent as a binary attachment.'"
Comments
Sidney [01/27/2004 12:10]:
This is helpful. Thanks
Tiffany [01/27/2004 13:25]:
Thanks for the info, there is such an e-mail in my excite inbox right now. Now i know not to open it.
pete [01/28/2004 12:31]:
Re Tiffany's comment, it is fine to open or delete these emails from a major web-mail service like Hotmail, Yahoo, Excite, etc; the infected emails are only dangerous if they are opened on a Windows computer with an active Internet connection.
Pete [01/28/2004 12:46]:
Symantec's Security Response including Removal Instructions for Windows users.
-p
