OL2000: Melissa.U Macro Virus Alert (243989)

SUMMARY

Microsoft has discovered a new variant of the Melissa.U virus which is not detected by most anti-virus programs at this time. E-mail messages that contain an infected Microsoft Word document as an attachment arrive with the word "pictures" on the Subject line, followed by the registered name used for the local installation of Word from which the e-mail message was sent. Infection occurs when you open the infected Word document and choose to enable macros or if you already have macro security set to Low (Word 2000) or disabled completely (Word 97 for Windows), in which case the macro runs automatically.

MORE INFORMATION

It is important to note that the default Word 2000 macro security setting is High, which silently disables unsigned macros such as this Melissa.U variant. By default, Word 97 for Windows always prompts you before enabling potentially dangerous macros.

To prevent this virus from infecting your computer, do not open e-mail messages you receive with a Subject line of "pictures." Furthermore, Microsoft recommends that you take the following precautions:

Immediately delete any e-mail message that has a Subject line beginning with "pictures."
Ensure that Word 2000 macro security is set to High or Word 97 for Windows macro virus protection is enabled.
Always select Disable Macros if you are given a choice.
Do not make yourself vulnerable to this or other viruses by opening an e-mail attachment unless you know exactly what the attachment is and who it came from.

For more information about this new variant of the Melissa.U virus, please go to the following address on the World Wide Web:

http://vil.nai.com/vil/vm10385.asp

For additional information about viruses in general, please go to the following address on the World Wide Web:

http://www.icsa.net/services/consortia/anti-virus/avpdmembers.shtml