Computer Associates warns rapid spread of `Life Stages` worm is no joke

Computer Associates International, Inc. (CA) is urging eBusinesses and home computer users to protect themselves from the latest email-disabling worm known as VBS/Stages. The worm is now being commonly referred to as "Life Stages."

CA has the cure for this disruptive worm, which has proven to be just as harmful as the notorious "ILOVEYOU" virus.

VBS/Stages contaminates other machines using Microsoft OUTLOOK, changing the title of the email in an attempt to confuse the user. It also copies itself directly to any local or remote (networked) drives that are available. While the worm has the potential to overload email servers, which can result in business disruption, it does not dangerously damage the infected machine. CA`s worldwide antivirus security team has monitored the worm`s spread over the last 72 hours and is now upgrading the risk level of this attack to medium-high.

CA is continually monitoring eSecurity threats using its global information intelligence network.

The worm uses various techniques to prevent the computer user from noticing the infection. When spread by email, it will change the subject of the email randomly. Some of the possible subjects include:

"Fw: Life Stages," "Fw: Funny," "Fw: Jokes," "Fw: Life Stages text," "Fw: Funny text," "Fw: Jokes text," "Life Stages," "Funny," "Jokes," "Life Stages text," "Funny text," and "Jokes text"

CA clients that already deployed CA`s eTrust Content Inspection Personal Edition and Mail Watcher prior to the attack enjoyed full protection from this worm and remained undisrupted and unharmed. In contrast, many inadequately protected eBusinesses and home computer users experienced computer failure due to "Life Stages."

eTrust Content Inspection PE protects PC users from worms by blocking file types commonly used by virus writers from infecting home user`s machines. Mail Watcher monitors a user`s email application, alerting when suspicious activity is detected. Mail Watcher thwarts the spreading of viruses through email that was such a damaging feature of recent attacks.

Users can get the latest information on this worm at http://www.ca.com/virusinfo/. CA is offering a full complement of free software for personal use that will protect against viruses, worms and other attacks at http://www.ca.com/proactivesecurity and encourages all computer users to take advantage of this offering. Users may download InoculateIT, eTrust Content Inspection PE and Mail Watcher, providing proactive protection.

InoculateIT is certified by the International Computer Security Association (ICSA) to detect 100% of viruses "in the wild" and ensures a network is protected against potentially damaging and costly virus incidents.

InoculateIT is part of CA`s eTrust solutions, which are built on CA`s Unicenter TNG Framework, providing a powerful, comprehensive, and integrated solution for building, deploying and securing eBusiness. eTrust enables eBusiness by safeguarding all mission-critical resources, from the browser to the mainframe. eTrust Content Inspection PE and Mail Watcher complement CA`s recently announced enhancement to InoculateIT.