Anti-virus software writers are scrambling and warning users a new version of an old bug might be nestling in their e-mail inboxes. The MiniZip was reported last week and has apparently struck a number of major companies Tuesday, overloading e-mail systems and damaging hard drive files, says the Associated Press.
Anti-virus leaders say new upgrades to fight MiniZip can be downloaded from their Web sites. Dan Schrader, vice president of anti-virus software maker Trend Micro, tells the AP he took complaints of significant problems from four Fortune 500 companies and a phalanx of smaller companies. And Network Associates marketing manager Sal Viveros tells the AP twenty large corporations were affected by Tuesday evening.
Both men didn't name the companies involved. But later reports have indicated at least two Wall Street heavyweights - Bear Stearns and Banc of America Securities - were hit by the bug.
Also identified as Worm.ExploreZip(pack), MiniZip is a compressed version of ExploreZip and probably does most of its damage within infected organizations' computer networks. The virus reads addresses of new and unread e-mail in Microsoft Outlook, Outlook Express, or Exchange e-mail programs and, then, automatically sends itself as a response.
MiniZip changes the subject line from, for example, "Work Meeting" to "Re: Work Meeting," the AP says, with the body of its message reading, ``Hi (recipient's name)! I received your e-mail and I shall send you an e-mail ASAP. Till then, take a look at the attached zipped docs. bye.'' The bug is contained in an e-mail attachment called "zipped-files.exe"; double-clicking the attachment activates the virus in the new victim's system. It then destroys various files by replacing them with empty files.
MiniZip, like ExploreZip, only hits Microsoft operating systems, like Windows 95, 98, and NT.
