Monday, January 1, 2001		Latest in IT world

Worm targets Outlook Express

VBS/MBot-A, a new Visual Basic Script worm has been detected, which is being rated as high risk by some anti-virus companies. This virus comes as an e-mail attachment called "matrixbot.vbs" and is similar to the deadly love bug. The mail carrying this virus may also have the subject line "NewsMatrixBot (Test Run only)" and the body text: "NewsMatrix Bot (Test Run only) if you send me anymore advertisement and there’s gonna other bot coming." This worm is of destructive nature and if the attachment is opened then it copies itself to the Windows directory as "Win32DLL.vbs" and to the Windows System directory as "MSKernel32.vbs" and as "matrixbot.vbs". It will also change the registry so that the first two files are run automatically. This worm is targeted at Outlook Express as it uses the Outlook Express to send itself to all addresses in the address book. The anti-virus companies have warned the users not to open any such mail with the aforesaid attachment. As a general precaution also, this is the most sensitive period for virus invasion in the computer and the virus companies have advised to be cautious of new viruses and also resurfacing of old viruses. Some of the recent high-risk viruses are Apology-B, Navidad, Kakworm, LoveLet-G, LoveLet-AS, Flcss, Qaz, Jini-B, Ska-Happy 99, Pretty etc.

In the recent times, the most talked about product in the world of computer is Pentium 4. The fastest chip on the planet has been a hot topic of discussion right since the time of inception as "Wilmette" to its final launching a few weeks ago. The chip is again in the focus, now for a bug, which is associated with this processor right since the time of its launch. Though the bug has been contained for all potential damages, it may degrade the performance of the chip. However the impact of this bug will not be found in the normal working of a computer but may slow down a bit if a second monitor or an additional graphics card, through one of the PCI expansion slots, is connected to this processor. Since the impact of the bug is limited and any further possible damages that could arise have already been contained, thus its impact is not likely to remain much on the processor. Moreover, a version of the chipset, which would be bug free, will also be launched in the near future.