New computer virus spreads across Asia

Published January 29, 2002

LONDON, Jan 28: A new computer bug that tries to trick computer users into clicking on a virus-infected Web link masquerading as party photos emerged in Asia on Monday morning and began spreading to Europe, computer experts said.

The so-called “My Party” worm, which is not considered destructive, spreads by infiltrating popular email software Microsoft Windows Address Book and Outlook Express Database.

The worm emails itself to every person in an infected users’ email log making it look as if the worm comes from a colleague or friend, experts said.

Anti-virus specialist Trend Micro gave it a medium risk rating. The virus arrives as an email with the subject line “new photos from my party!”. It contains an innocuous looking file attachment called www.myparty.yahoo.com. A message in the body of the email reads: “Hello! My party... It was absolutely amazing! I have attached my web page with new photos! If you can please make colour prints of my photos. Thanks!”—Reuters