Bugbear back for second round

Anti-virus software developers Trend Micro Inc (趨勢科技) and Symantec Corp issued an alert over the weekend, urging computer users to be on their guard against a cyber bug that allows hackers to access confidential information on people's computers.

The worm, known as Bugbear, is a mass-mailing virus that spreads through Microsoft's Outlook Express e-mail program and can run automatically when users preview their mails before opening them.

The worm disguises itself with harmless e-mail subjects such as "$150 free bonus," "tools for your online business," "daily e-mail reminder," and "get 8 free issues-no risk!"

It can also spread through Microsoft's Internet Explorer program, allowing hackers to intercept personal information such as passwords and credit-card numbers.

"Internet users have to be very cautious especially when they provide personal information to make online transactions," Terence Wang (王應達), a technical support manager at Trend Micro said yesterday.

The Bugbear virus records a user's keystrokes to capture passwords or credit-card numbers, attaching itself to e-mails and copying itself onto computers.

Trend Micro's branch office in Europe first spotted Bugbear on Thursday night and tracked the virus as it spread to the US, Africa and Asia.

While Trend Micro's local offices had received only a few reports of Bugbear infections around the nation as of Friday evening, Wang expected the situation to be much worse today.

"Since most companies are closed on weekends, they may not realize they have been infected until they go back to work," he said.

US-based Symantec has rated Bugbear a severe threat.

"Due to the number of submissions received from customers, Symantec has upgraded this threat to category four, or our second-highest threat level," said Tina Li (李欣欣), a public relations official associated with Symantec Taiwan.

As of Friday afternoon, the company had received reports of over 1,000 infections cases around the world, most in the US and Europe, Li said.

The impact here has been limited so far, she added.

Fortunately, bug busters said Bugbear is relatively easy to detect and remove.

"As long as computer users update their virus definitions and download a removal tool, Bugbear won't be able to create big problems," Wang said.

Several computer security companies such as Trend Micro, Symantec and Network Associates Technology Inc have developed removal tools for Bugbear and can be downloaded via their Web sites.

This is not the first time Bugbear has attacked the cyber world.

Last October the virus affected millions of computers in Europe, the US and Asia. Britain was the hardest hit with 55 percent of reported Bugbear hits, followed by Australia and New Zealand with 32 percent.