Monday, December 25, 2000		Article

Kriz — the Xmas virus

Christmas may not be fun always, particularly this time around, when there is a virus on the prowl that would come alive on December 25.

Kriz, a year-old computer virus, may be coming back for Christmas this year. It spreads by riding on other viruses.

Antivirus software maker Symantec has warned users to scan their computers before Christmas and released a free tool to scan for the virus and remove it.

Symantec and other anti-virus software already scan for the virus in their stand-alone programmes.

The Kriz virus spreads to a computer when the user opens an infected file, changing the kernel, the basic program that runs the operating system. The virus also infects other programs on the hard drive and any mapped drives, making it possible for the virus to travel across networks.

While you may have already downloaded the virus, it would get triggered only on December 25.

Symantec and its rival Trend Micro have reported that the virus has infected two other viruses: Happy99.worm — also known as W32.Ska — and W32.hllw.bymer.worm.

"Kriz is a destructive virus, but a really slow infector," says Joe Hartmann, antivirus researcher for Trend Micro. "Yet, it’s now infected a mass-mailer, so now you have a destructive virus that’s also a mass mailer."

This virus is essentially a copy of the CIH virus, which was created in 1997 by Cheng Ing-Hau of Taiwan. CIH died down in its first year, and a variant that struck every month also burned out quickly. However, the annual variant did significantly more damage when it was triggered in April, 1998.

Find out how to deal with the Kriz virus at http://www.zdnet.co.uk/news/2000/50/ns-19848.html.