A New Powerful Computer Virus ‘Goner’ Causing Havoc Worldwide
The very week seemed to bring online disaster a step closer. Another email virus- Goner is becoming a big hit in the eyes of the computer users after Love Bug. This powerful computer virus causing a huge havoc with the email systems worldwide.
As described by experts, Goner is spreading fast throughout the internet, affecting computer users across the world. Businesses are warned about this latest emerging threat and have been informed that they could expect a flood of e-mail viruses in the wake of this cutting-edge innovation.
Experts stated that Goner is one of the most infectious viruses after Love Bug. It seized computer systems worldwide in just a matter of hours on 4th December, overcrowding the email systems and destroying unprotected devices. Undoubtedly, it smashed several business organizations. However, it is easy to spot and deleting the email prevents your computer from getting infected.
The Goner email virus comes with a subject line ‘Hi’ and the body text reads “How are you? When I saw this screen saver, I immediately thought about you. I am in a harry (sic), I promise you will love it." Its attachment pretends as a screen saver and is labelled as "gone.scr". As soon as the user double clicks the attachment, the septic email spreads to all the contacts in a Microsoft Outlook address book.
How the virus do that? Actually referred to as worm, this virus hunts for and removes firewall and antivirus protection with users of internet chat application ICQ and Microsoft Outlook. Thereafter, the vulnerability sends itself to users in their address book, circulating the disease all across the world in just minutes. It is actually designed to detect and remove the antivirus program from the computers it infects. It also destroys personal firewall software, leaving your computer open to hacking.
Several antivirus companies have come up with updates to block Goner, however, users can also secure themselves by just hitting the delete button. According to experts, Goner was believed to be created in Europe. Amongst the 17 most affected countries, the UK , the US and France are considered to be the worst hit so far.
Despite being the most virulent email virus, Goner, as per its ranking is not particularly innovative.
• The threat made no effort to camouflage itself by means of email-subject headers or random file names.
• It was written in compiled Visual Basic and did not include much programming skill.
• It feature the ability to spread quickly as it emailed copies of itself to each contact in the Outlook address books of the compromised devices. The copies were directed via the IRQ and IRC Internet Discussion Channels.
In order to protect computers from getting infected, users can reinstall the antivirus program and can even install new software. Ensure that you do not install while the virus is still running as it can eliminate the protection suite as you try to install it. The only way to get out of the problem is to visit the website of your antivirus supplier and follow their guidelines or instructions.
Goner is becoming havoc for users and it is expanding at an incredible rate. As the virus attacks are reaching peaks, it’s a good solution to turn to the antivirus vendors and review their antivirus policies.
As described by experts, Goner is spreading fast throughout the internet, affecting computer users across the world. Businesses are warned about this latest emerging threat and have been informed that they could expect a flood of e-mail viruses in the wake of this cutting-edge innovation.
Experts stated that Goner is one of the most infectious viruses after Love Bug. It seized computer systems worldwide in just a matter of hours on 4th December, overcrowding the email systems and destroying unprotected devices. Undoubtedly, it smashed several business organizations. However, it is easy to spot and deleting the email prevents your computer from getting infected.
The Goner email virus comes with a subject line ‘Hi’ and the body text reads “How are you? When I saw this screen saver, I immediately thought about you. I am in a harry (sic), I promise you will love it." Its attachment pretends as a screen saver and is labelled as "gone.scr". As soon as the user double clicks the attachment, the septic email spreads to all the contacts in a Microsoft Outlook address book.
How the virus do that? Actually referred to as worm, this virus hunts for and removes firewall and antivirus protection with users of internet chat application ICQ and Microsoft Outlook. Thereafter, the vulnerability sends itself to users in their address book, circulating the disease all across the world in just minutes. It is actually designed to detect and remove the antivirus program from the computers it infects. It also destroys personal firewall software, leaving your computer open to hacking.
Several antivirus companies have come up with updates to block Goner, however, users can also secure themselves by just hitting the delete button. According to experts, Goner was believed to be created in Europe. Amongst the 17 most affected countries, the UK , the US and France are considered to be the worst hit so far.
Despite being the most virulent email virus, Goner, as per its ranking is not particularly innovative.
• The threat made no effort to camouflage itself by means of email-subject headers or random file names.
• It was written in compiled Visual Basic and did not include much programming skill.
• It feature the ability to spread quickly as it emailed copies of itself to each contact in the Outlook address books of the compromised devices. The copies were directed via the IRQ and IRC Internet Discussion Channels.
In order to protect computers from getting infected, users can reinstall the antivirus program and can even install new software. Ensure that you do not install while the virus is still running as it can eliminate the protection suite as you try to install it. The only way to get out of the problem is to visit the website of your antivirus supplier and follow their guidelines or instructions.
Goner is becoming havoc for users and it is expanding at an incredible rate. As the virus attacks are reaching peaks, it’s a good solution to turn to the antivirus vendors and review their antivirus policies.
