For more information on Melissa, see Global Melissa Information
Center at http://www.DataFellows.com/melissa/
A virulent and widespread computer virus was found on Friday, March
26, 1999. This virus has spread all over the globe within just
hours of initial discovery, apparently spreading faster than any
other virus before.
The virus, known as W97M/Melissa, spreads by e-mailing itself automatically
from one user to another. The virus activates by modifying the
user's documents, inserting comments from the TV series "The Simpsons".
Even worse, it can send out confidential information from the
computer without the user’s noticing it.
The virus was discovered late Friday evening European time, early
morning US time. For this reason, the virus spread in the USA
during Friday. Many multinational companies reported widespread
infections, including Microsoft and Intel. Microsoft closed down
their whole e-mail system to prevent a further spreading of the
virus. The number of infected computers so far is estimated at
tens of thousands, and rising quickly.
"We've never seen a virus spread so rapidly," comments Mikko Hypponen,
Data Fellows' Manager of Anti-Virus Research. "We've seen a handful
of viruses that distribute themselves automatically over e-mail,
but not one of them has been as successful as Melissa in the real
world."
W97M/Melissa was initially distributed in an internet discussion
group called alt.sex. The virus was sent in a file called LIST.DOC,
which contained passwords for X-rated websites. When users downloaded
the file and opened it in Microsoft Word, a macro inside the document
executed and e-mailed the LIST.DOC file to 50 people listed in
the e-mail alias file ("address book") of the user.
What are Computer Viruses?
Macro virus
Using Third-party Software
Boot-sector Viruses
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