From the New York Times 3/28/99 - "This is the fastest spreading virus
we've seen, said the general manager of McAfee Software division of Network
Associates, a Santa Clara, California company that makes anti-virus software.
The virus is carried by e-mail and reproduces it's self exponentially, trying
to use each infected message to send 50 more infected messages.
Network security experts said that the virus appeared to do no harm to the
machines it infected and that individuals could easily disable it. E-mails
infected with the Melissa virus begins with the "topic line" (or subject) with
"Important message From." Next is the sender's name which is often the name
of a friend, fellow worker or someone else known to the recipient.
The message within the e-mail is short and innocuous: "Here is that document
you asked for... don't show it to anyone else;-)" Attached to it is a
40,000-byte, or 40K, Microsoft Word document named "list.doc".
When the recipient opens list.doc, the Melissa virus automatically searches
for an e-mail address book. It then sends a copy of itself - the message and
attachments - from the recipient to the first 50 names it finds in the
recipient's address book, which accounts for the rapid acceleration across the
Internet.
The virus is known to spread with two popular e-mail programs, Microsoft
Outlook and a slimmed-down version of the same program, Microsoft Outlook
Express, which is part of the Windows 98 operating system and is often
installed with Windows 95.
Several anti-virus software makers posted software on their web sites that
their customers can download to detect the virus-encoded message and refuse
it. A fix for the general public was available on http://www.sendmail, the
Emeryville company whose post-office software is often used to direct mail on
the Internet.
Individuals can avoid contracting or spreading the virus simply by not
opening the attachment that accompanies the e-mail. (Don't even open the e-
mail) Opening the message alone will not cause the virus to copy the address
list and send itself out.
Alternatively, users can disarm the virus by disabling the type of program
that contains it - "macros," which are small applications used to automate
tasks in Microsoft Word documents.