Fro; Panda Virus Alerts: - The new Sasser.D worm aggravates the epidemic that is sweeping across the Internet - Virus Alerts, by Panda Software (http://www.pandasoftware.com) Madrid, May 03 2004 - PandaLabs has detected the appearance of a new variant of the Sasser worm (Sasser.D) -very similar to its predecessors- which, according to the data gathered by the multinational's International Alerts Network, has started to cause incidents. In order to combat the effects of the epidemic triggered by the variants of the Sasser worm, Panda Software has made two new PQRemove utilities available to all users. These applications can clean infected computers and restore the configuration computers had prior to the worm's attack. ** The first PQRemove is specific for networks and removes Sasser and all of its variants from any network that could have been affected. You can download at: http://www.pandasoftware.com/support/ ** The second PQRemove application cleans every computer that could have been attacked by Sasser.D. You can download at: http://www.pandasoftware.com/download/utilities/ Far from receding, the global epidemic unleashed by Sasser and its variants is expanding progressively. As expected, the number of companies whose network has been affected by these dangerous worms is increasing. According to The Daily Telegraph, Sydney's railway radio communication network has been seriously affected by a computer virus. Besides, some 300 million computers worldwide are vulnerable to attack by the Sasser worm, which gives an idea of the potential scale of the threat. There can be no doubt about the intentions of the creators of these worms: to put as many viruses as possible in circulation in order to multiply the probability of infection. Luis Corrons, head of PandaLabs warns of the threat: "New variants of Sasser will continue to appear in the next few hours, and it will be necessary to be protected. To ensure this, users should install the Microsoft patch that corrects the vulnerability exploited by Sasser". Panda Software informs users that the new worms can be detected and disinfected with an up-to-date antivirus, but it is important to install the Microsoft patch to ensure that Sasser.A doesn't re-infect computers. The vulnerability exploited by this worm was reported by Microsoft recently in bulletin MS04-011 (http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/MS04-011.mspx), along with the patch. Panda Software has made the updates necessary to its products available to clients. Panda Software's online support center (http://www.pandasoftware.com/support/) also offers help to users. Panda Software clients can update their antivirus through the applications installed on their computers. In addition, the users can scan their computers on line for free with the ActiveScan solution, available in the company web page http://www.pandasoftware.com. More information about these and other IT threats is available from http://www.pandasoftware.com/virus_info/encyclopedia/ NOTE: The addresses above may not show up on your screen as single lines. This would prevent you from using the links to access the web pages. If this happens, just use the 'cut' and 'paste' options to join the pieces of the URL. ------------------------------------------------------------ *********** MIKE"S REPLY SEPARATOR *********** Mike ~ It is a good day if I learned something new. Editor MikesWhatsNews see a sample on my web page http://www3.telus.net/mikebike <mikeswhatsnews-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx?Subject=subscribe> http://www3.telus.net/mikebike/worm_removal.htm See my Anti-Virus pages http://virusinfo.hackfix.org/index <virusinfo-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx?Subject=subscribe> A Technical Support Alliance and OWTA Charter Member