By Nigel Thorpe
Senior English Editor
Albawaba.com - Amman
Just when you thought it was safe to open those Email attachments, DIT.net reports that Melissa is back with a new name (Melissa-X or Melissa 2001) and new computer “hives” to raid.
Melissa in Greek mythology was the nymph that cared for the infant Zeus while he was hiding from his father, the king of the gods. When the Gods discovered Melissa was feeding her unworldly baby on honey plundered from bee hives, they turned her into a honeybee whose eternal task it was to make honey.
In the twentieth and twenty-first century, Melissa’s eternal quest is to make more and more copies of its poisoned “digital honey.” Melissa “Mark1” raided corporate E-mail servers in 1999 by propagating itself though the Outlook e-mail system. Since the “digital bee” has now unfortunately mutated and changed its “stripes,” it can slip passed most of the virus-screens that stand guard at the entrance to PC digital “hives.” The new virus disguises itself as a Macintosh formated Microsoft Office document attached to an incoming Email. This Email, with its “Trojan horse” cargo, displays the words “important message from ……………… ( username ).” The body text reads “Here is that document you asked for ………… don’t show anyone else: - “
The mutant, like its parent virus, then attaches itself to the first 50 Outlook addresses it finds in the user’s address book before it “buzzes” off down a web link to multiply in another computer.
Although it does not hit the hard disc, or destroy files, both the old and new forms are considered dangerous especially for intranets and corporate users.
In 1999, Mac users were saved from attack by the original Melissa virus because their computers used Outlook Express which, unlike Outlook, does not support the Visual Basic code necessary to launch the virus on a new round of attacks. Melissa’s recent mutation has, unfortunately, removed the “natural immunity” of the Mac computer and it can now hit Mac, Windows Office 97 and 2000 users.
According to DIT.net, the mutation of the Melissa virus was by accident rather than by malicious design. Computer experts believe that the virus mutated when a Mac user saved a document infected with the virus as an Office 2001 file. The new round of infection must have then started when a Windows 97 user opened the infected document with an incoming mail.
To counter the Melissa “swarming”, DIT.net advises users to take care when opening attachments from an unknown source and scan all unexpected attachments with an updated version of anti-virus software package.
Melissa’s comeback highlights the need to up-grade virus screens on a weekly, or at least a monthly basis. A “bug fix” against the new Melissa virus can be downloaded from McAfee, Symantec, and other major security software vendors. The Ziff-Davis website provides tips and instructions on how to download Microsoft’s Outlook Security Patch for both Outlook 98 and 2000.
Melissa’s comeback shows that, even in the twenty-first century, it still behooves the computer user to “beware of Greeks bearing gifts.”
