Virus alert: Aliz worm rears its ugly head

Computer users around the world are on red alert as another worm looks set to cause chaos in IT departments and PCs across the globe.

Called Aliz, the worm spreads via email and can be activated merely by a user viewing the email containing it, without having to open any attachment.

It then attempts to send itself to every email address in the victim's address list.

The worm was first detected over six months ago, and many anti-virus products already detect it. In addition the worm has faults which make it incapable of spreading on many email client-server configurations.

However, email anti-virus specialists MessageLabs had already detected over 1,200 instances of the worm by 17:30(GMT) Wednesday.

Most users should be protected by their existing anti-virus software but check with your vendor if you're worried.