'Life stages' worm gets serious

The 'Life stages' worm which attacked email systems in the US, Australia and Asia earlier this week, has been upgraded from a medium to high risk threat by leading anti-virus research centres.

Both Network Associates and Symantec upgraded the virus yesterday, after reports that it had hit several high profile corporations in the UK. Experts estimate it has hit up to 60,000 UK users already.

Like the 'Love Bug', the latest virus - nicknamed the 'Life stages' worm because of the subject line attached to the email message - has hit Microsoft Outlook in over 100 US companies so far.

Industry analysts warn email viruses will continue to wreak havoc as users fall prey to their own curiosity and virus creators copy highly publicised outbreaks.

According to Graham Cluley, senior technical consultant with anti-virus research group Sophos, 600 new viruses are released every month. But very few of these make the headlines because they don't spread far.

"Most viruses are simple. Where they are sophisticated, is in terms of psychology. People remember a virus when it is news but they then forget it - their guard drops. But people should be aware of viruses everyday," he said.

According to Jack Clark, European product manager with Network Associates, many large corporations in the UK have been hit by the 'Life stages' worm, with an estimated 50,000 to 60,000 users affected.

He said: "The fact that we have customers who have been infected means they're not upgrading their anti-virus software. We've put in mechanisms since the Melissa virus which are as simple as clicking an upgrade button, but people are still not doing that."

The virus creators are happy to advertise their work, either posting them on websites or sending them to anti-virus research centers.

MessageLabs say they had an anti-virus cure for the 'life stages' worm available last month after discovering the code on a public website. But according to Alex Shipp, virus technologist at the virus watchdog, this hit and miss approach is not a suitable method of virus prevention.

"It does take up time and resources, but you never know which one to put the time and resources into. I think we were lucky here," Shipp said.