NACS has taken several measures against the new “MyParty” Internet worm, unleashed recently.
The “MyParty” worm arrives in your Inbox disguised as an email message, bearing the subject line “new photos from my party!”. This worm targets popular Outlook and Outlook Express email programs running on the Windows operating system. The message contains a file attachment disguised as a web site URL, “www.myparty.yahoo.com” If, expecting a web site, you click on this file attachment, a program is installed on your computer which lets the worm’s author gain control of your computer over the network. It also sends email to the author, and propagates copies of itself to everyone in your email Address Book.
NACS has instituted defenses against MyParty both on the campus mail routing servers (MTAs), and on the EA and E4E systems which faculty, staff, and students use to read electronic mail.
In the first week since MyParty’s release, over 8000 copies of the worm were blocked on EA and E4E and almost 29000 further copies were blocked at the campus (“@uci.edu”) e-mail gateways.
Information on MyParty and other recent viruses may be reviewed atÂ
http://www.nacs.uci.edu/security/virus.html