Leading antivirus software providers have released updates and other services to prevent their customers from falling victim to the destructive Worm.ExploreZip Trojan horse.
Symantec, Network Associates, Trend Micro and Panda Software are among the companies that have posted virus-definition sets that can detect the new virus. Meanwhile, FastLane Technologies, developer of enterprise Windows NT directory management solutions, released an application to detect and disable the virus.
The virus affects Microsoft Outlook and Exchange users. Worm.ExploreZip spreads when a user receiving mail that appears to be from someone they know unwittingly opens the attachment within the message.
Microsoft recommended that users install the latest antivirus software and keep their digital signatures up to date. In addition, if users set their Attachment Security to "high" within Outlook they will receive a warning before attachments run.
On Sunday, a user in Israel sent a copy of the virus to the Symantec Antivirus Research Center in Santa Monica, Calif. Consequently, Symantec made its Norton AntiVirus definitions available for download on Wednesday night. Norton AntiVirus users can download the current virus definitions through a service called LiveUpdate.
Network Associate's AntiVirus Emergency Response Team received information on the virus at 2 a.m. Wednesday and promptly posted a remedy, said Sal Viveros, group marketing manager for Network Associate's Total Virus Defense. The update protects users of McAfee VirusScan and users of Doctor Solomon Antivirus Toolkit, who are mostly based in the U.K. and Germany.
Users who want to avoid a download and just want to find out whether the virus has been sent to them can go to www.mcafee.com for an online scan. Traffic at that site has increased 600% since word of the virus came out, Viveros said.
About 60% of Network Associate's top tier customers suffered severe damage caused by the virus believed to have originated in Israel, Viveros said. All the information Network Associates researchers collected has been turned over to the FBI, he said.
FastLane is not a traditional antivirus vendor. However, the company is offering a solution. FastLane provides detection software that can help contain the damage, said Jan Kaminski, president of FastLane Technologies based in Halifax, Nova Scotia.
"What we can do from a central administrative desk is detect whether or not the virus is running and shut down a remote machine and disable the virus," Kaminski said. "Then the user has to use proper antivirus software to eradicate the virus."
AT&T, Microsoft and Dell have ordered FastLane's detection software to protect their internal networks.
Most organizations are now aware of the virus, but the challenge for administrators managing networks with thousands of users remains, Kaminski said.
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