London, UK, 19 May 2000 - GFI, leading developer of email security & anti-virus software, has announced that a new and far more dangerous variant of the Love Bug virus, VBS.Loveletter.FW.A, is in the wild. GFI was the first vendor to issue an alert about the Love Bug virus and warn of its variants on 4 May. This variant of the LoveLetter worm is the most harmful yet.

"Despite all the warnings issued as a result of the Love Bug earlier this month, many companies are still not investing in a general blocking of Visual Basic script viruses. Unfortunately, this means that email users worldwide are being hit by this latest version of the Love Bug," Nick Galea, GFI CEO observed.

"It is simply no longer enough to have a virus engine, as most anti-virus companies can only provide a remedy after an email virus has caused harm. With an email content checking tool, any damage is prevented before it can be done. Content checking software such as Mail essentials can block out emails or attachments based on Visual Basic scripting or dangerous executables at server level," Mr. Galea explained.

"The only way to have full protection against the Love Bug and all variants of it is to block all emails containing scripts at email server level, by quarantining them. This is the safest way to prevent infection, especially as these VB-script viruses are easy to replicate and modify, as this new variant proves. Based on this approach, Mail essentials has prevented infection from this new variant for all those using this system."

The new Love Bug variant is delivered in the same way as the original Love Letter worm of 4 May. Once the attachment carrying it is opened, the worm is activated and it spreads itself to all contacts on the PC's email address book. In the process, this variant also overwrites all files not in use on that PC. However, in addition, it is polymorphic, which allows it to disguise itself.

Its polymorphic nature enables the virus to randomly select a subject line and body text message for the email carrying it. This makes it extremely difficult for anti-virus companies to find a signature for detection and deletion purposes. Besides, this characteristic means that this virus cannot be stopped at server level on the basis of key words, in the way that spam is prevented access, for instance.

Mail essentials is a powerful email security, content checking & anti-virus gateway. More information about Mail essentials can be found at http://www.gfi.com/me/index.html. The full version of Mail essentials is available from $250.