Panda Virus Alert - Mydoom.A - Release #2

Panda Software Announces Mydoom.A worm as the most widespread virus around the globe - The number of incidents is increasing rapidly, and in just a few hours, this worm has become the virus most frequently detected by Panda ActiveScan. Glendale, CA - January 27, 2004 - Mydoom.A computer worm is continuing to spread rapidly and infect computers around the globe as demonstrated by data collected by Panda Software’s technical support network. In fact, it is currently number one in the ranking of the viruses most frequently detected worldwide by the online antivirus utility, Panda ActiveScan. If its activity continues increasing over the next few hours, the epidemic caused by Mydoom.A could become the biggest in the history of computing. For this reason, in order to stop Mydoom.A from continuing to spread through computers without adequate antivirus protection installed, Panda Software offers all users its free PQremove tool, which detects and eliminates Mydoom.A from infected computers and restores any changes this worm has made to the system configuration. This utility can be downloaded from http://www.pandasoftware.com/download/utilities. It is also very important to remember that the Mydoom.A worm has been designed to target corporate networks of any size, which it could bring to a standstill. As this worm creates a backdoor in the computer, a network infected by Mydoom.A becomes easy prey for hackers, who could steal, corrupt or destroy information that is essential to the company’s activity. In order to get user to unwittingly infect their computers, Mydoom.A uses so-called social engineering, and therefore, it is important to learn how to recognize the e-mail messages that Mydoom.A uses to get into computers. You can find the characteristics of these messages in Panda Software’s Virus Encyclopedia. Panda Software advises users to update their antivirus solutions, if they haven’t already done so. The company has already made the updates to its products available to its clients to ensure their solutions can detect and eliminate Mydoom.A. Even though Panda Software’s products can be automatically updated every day, those whose software is not configured to update automatically, should update their solutions from http://www.pandasoftware.com/. Panda Software also offers users its free, online tool Antivirus Checker, which will inform you of the protection status of your computer. This tool specifies whether an antivirus is installed, which one and if it is updated, and therefore keeping the computer safe from viruses. Antivirus Checker is available at: http://www.pandasoftware.com/protected. Users can also detect this and other malicious code using the free, online antivirus, Panda ActiveScan, which is available on the company’s website at http://www.pandasoftware.com/. More detailed information on Mydoom.A is available from Panda Software’s Virus Encyclopedia. About PandaLabs PandaLabs works round the clock in search of new viruses and threats that could appear in any corner of the globe or that are sent in by users who have found suspicious files. The PandaLabs team immediately scrutinizes every malicious code they receive, analyzing its characteristics and behavior. After completing these tasks, they develop detection and disinfection routines, which are then distributed, every day, to the users of Panda Software's antivirus products. As a result, the multinational's solutions against malicious code are always armed against any threat, however recent it may be. More information about PandaLabs is available at http://www.pandasoftware.com/virus_info/pandalabs. For more information: Alan Wallace