GFI discovers dangerous new email virus - "Love Letter"

GFI'S Mail essentials can block this new virus

London, UK, 4 May 2000 - GFI, leading developer of email security & anti-virus software, is the first to discover a dangerous new email virus, in the form of a love letter entitled "ILOVEYOU". This harmful virus - and any variants - can be blocked by Mail essentials, GFI's email security, content checking and anti-virus gateway.

The new email virus is spreading rapidly. It uses a VB script and sends itself to all contacts in the recipient's email address book. It is contained in an email with ILOVEYOU as the Subject, a one-line message ("kindly check the attached LOVELETTER coming from me.") and an attachment, LOVE-LETTER-FOR-YOU.TXT.VBS

"This latest discovery is proof that email has become the main way of spreading viruses," said Nick Galea, CEO of GFI.

"With Mail essentials, blocking this virus is easy: Just set Mail essentials to block VBS attachments in the Content Checking tab. This will block any incoming/outgoing infected mail. This way, the Mail essentials resolution will block all viruses of this kind, as it will quarantine any attachments using a VB script. This means that Mail essentials will also catch any variants of the Love Letter virus."

If opened, the "Love Letter For You" attachment infects the recipient's computer. This dangerous virus propagates through Microsoft Outlook and the popular chat program called mIRC, and possibly other email systems.

It infects VBS files on the recipient's drives as well as overwriting JPGs and searching for mIRC. If found, the virus inserts a custom script in it to infect other mIRC users and sends itself to every contact in the infected computer's address book. LOVE-LETTER-FOR-YOU will also try to download an EXE file from four Internet sites.

Mail essentials is a comprehensive email content security & anti-virus gateway that offers the following features:

• Content checking/filtering.
• Prevention of confidential info leaks.
• Virus checking of all email.
• Advanced anti-spam measures.
• Disclaimers: Enables you to add a disclaimer to each outgoing mail.
• Email management: Reports, archiving of all email, POP3 downloading & Server-based auto replies.

More information can be found at http://www.gfi.com/me/index.html. The full version of Mail essentials is available from $295.