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Monday September 24 6:48 PM ET
New 'War Vote' Virus Deletes Computer Files

By Elinor Mills Abreu

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Computer security experts on Monday warned
of a
new virus that deletes files while masquerading as a program that
will allow
people to vote on whether the United States should go to war over the
Sept.
11 hijacker attacks.

The ``Vote Virus,'' which so far is not widespread, circulates via e-
mail to
users of Microsoft Corp.'s (Nasdaq:MSFT - news) Outlook e-mail
program, said
Simon Perry, vice president of security solutions at Computer
Associates
International Inc. (NYSE:CA - news)

The virus, punctuated by strange grammar and a mix of lower- and
upper-case
letters, appears with the subject line: ''Peace between America and
Islam!''
and the body of the e-mail reads: ``Hi. Is it a war against America or
Islam!? Let's vote to live in peace!'' Perry and other experts said.

When the attachment entitled ``WTC.exe'' is opened, the virus tries to
delete all the files on the computer's hard drive and sends copies of
the
e-mail to every address listed in the computer's address book, he
said.

The virus also defaces any Web pages that are hosted by an infected
computer
to read: ``America ... few days will show you what we can do!!! It's
our
turn ))) ZaCker is so sorry for you,'' according to Perry.

In addition the virus, which is a worm because of its self-propagation
capabilities, deletes the Windows directory files, tries to download a
``backdoor'' on the computer and unsuccessfully attempts to reformat
the
system, said Vincent Gullotto, senior research director of Network
Associates Inc.'s (Nasdaq:NETA - news) Antivirus Response Team. A
``backdoor'' would enable someone to get remote access to the computer
without permission.

The virus also can delete antivirus software on the computer,
according to
Vincent Weafer, director of Symantec Corp.'s (Nasdaq:SYMC - news)
Antivirus
Research Center.

SICK SENSE OF HUMOR

The virus is believed to be the work of an opportunist and not
associated
with the Sept. 11 jetliner attacks on the World Trade Center and
Pentagon
(news - web sites) in which nearly 7,000 people feared dead.

``There is no evidence that this is related to the people who carried
out''
the attacks, Perry said.

Virus writers have discovered that they can easily dupe people into
opening
emails by appealing to their prurient interests.

For example, popular viruses have purported to be photos of naked
women or
love letters, like the ``I Love You'' virus that caused an estimated
$8.7
billion in global damage last year.

Researchers are worried that the new, dangerous virus might spread
quickly
because of its supposed relation to the debate over U.S. retaliation
for the
attacks.

``We feel this is likely to get quite a high pickup in that a lot of
people
are going to click on this,'' Perry said. ``If the news about this
doesn't
get out before people get their e-mails, they're at risk.''

Perry said he expects there will be more socially engineered viruses
related
to the topic of war and terrorism.

``What this is a sick sense of humor,'' Perry said. ``Chances are
this is
not any kind of cyber-terrorism. It's just cyber terror.''

``If this was truly politically motivated there would have been more
of a
message some place in the code,'' noted Gullotto.

FEW INFECTIONS SO FAR

While Symantec and Network Associates reported only a couple of
customer
infections each, between five and 10 large corporate customers of
Computer
Associates have been infected since the virus first appeared on Monday
morning, Perry said.

Researchers do not know where it originated from but it has not yet
hit
Europe and Asia, he said.

The software companies are working to update their antivirus programs
to
detect and protect computers against the new virus, researchers said.

A free security update for Outlook 2000 that was released about a
year ago
automatically blocks it, according to Microsoft spokesman Jim Desler.

``We find it appalling that someone would choose this time and these
circumstances to propagate a virus,'' he said.