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'Here You Have' E-mail Virus Wreaks Havoc Across the Globe

by Amar Toor on September 10, 2010 at 09:20 AM

'here you have' virus
Yesterday afternoon, a massive virus hit e-mail accounts across the world, including those at major corporations like ABC/Disney, Google, Coca-Cola and NASA. According to ABC News, the trojan virus spread through e-mails with subject lines that read 'Here You Have,' while other versions of the worm were hidden under subject lines like 'This is The Free Dowload Sex Movies,you can find it Here,' and 'Just For You.' Each e-mail contained a link that, if clicked, would download the malware onto a recipient's computer, and send a wave of similar e-mails to his or her contacts. Although the exact number of victims remains unknown, the attack was reportedly virulent enough to force many employees to abandon their e-mail accounts altogether.

Not long after the attack first hit, McAfee published a report on its blog, saying that the risk of infection on both home and work e-mail accounts is "low," while acknowledging that it may take time to root out all of the virus's multiple variants. The security firm also identified the virus as a trojan horse, but had not yet determined its origins. Symantec, meanwhile, told ABC that the worm, which it has called 'W32.Imsolk.A@mm,' is similar to the 'Anna Kournikova' worm that hit computers in 2001, and also spread under the 'Here You Have' subject. The security firm, as always, recommends that recipients of e-mails with suspicious subject lines delete them instantly.

Even the Department of Homeland Security and the U.S. Computer Emergency Readiness Team are investigating the attack, and are expected to make an announcement later today. Although the worm forced the Florida Department of Transportation to shut down its e-mail accounts, it doesn't seem to have had a significant impact on operations. As chief information officer for the Florida Department of Transportation Nelson Hill says, "It's not life and death, a bridge hasn't collapsed and killed anybody."

Has your e-mail account been hit with the 'here you have' virus?
Yes690 (9.2%)
No5675 (75.5%)
I'm not sure1148 (15.3%)


Tags: abc, AnnaKournikova, attack, botnet, CyberSecurity, DepartmentOfHomelandSecurity, email, google, government, HereYouHave, malware, NASA, security, spam, top, trojan, TrojanHorse, virus, web

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