The new year is inspiring to all; a time for change, re-birth, and quite possibly, a new virus. E-mails are currently scouring the Internet, trying to find vulnerable hosts to execute their latest threat.

Although some are said to be different, these messages contain a pleasant “Happy New Year”, but hold an unpleasant attachment. While the attachments are also different, according to some sources, the majority of them are named postcard.exe, or may contain a zip file – postcard.zip.

If the attachment is downloaded and executed, it will install a worm, now formally known as the “New Year Worm”, into your computer. The worm will then download further software it needs to infect other computers by spamming e-mail accounts.

According to VeriSign’s iDefense Labs, which provides information on security flaws and exploits, the worm is already moving quickly across the Internet, at a rate of five e-mails per second. Keep in mind that this worm is not detectable by all virus scanning software, and will even make an attempt at disabling your security software.

Your best bet, this holiday season, is to not download any executable file, even if you know who gave it to you and trust them; their computer may be infected as well. 

All of us, here at TECH.BLORGE.com, would like to wish you a safe, happy New Year!

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Entry was posted on Sunday, December 31st, 2006 at 3:48 pm under Security.

Read more entries by George Gardner.
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