>
single companies", comments Mikko Hypponen, Manager of Anti-Virus Research at 
<BR>
Data Fellows. &quot;We have to remember that this worm does not spread over e-mail 
<BR>
nearly as fast as the Melissa virus did. It only spreads at the rate of normal
<BR>
e-mail traffic - if you receive ten e-mails a day, you will send the worm out
<BR>
ten times&quot;. &quot;However, once ZippedFiles enters your corporate network, it will
<BR>
travel around fast if you don't have every workstation running up-to-date
<BR>
protection.&quot; 
<BR>
<P>Questions &amp; Answers on the ZippedFiles worm: 
<BR>
<P>Q: What's the name of the worm? 
<BR>
<P>A: This worm is known as either ZippedFiles or ExploreZip 
<BR>
<P>Q: What's the difference between a virus and a worm? 
<BR>
<P>A: Viruses work by infecting the user's own files and they spread when these 
<BR>
are exchanged. Worms don't infect your own files, they just use your computer 
<BR>
to send themselves further to other machines. 
<BR>
<P>Q: Where was ZippedFiles written? 
<BR>
<P>A: The first infection reports were from Israel, so it might be from that 
<BR>
region. 
<BR>
<P>Q: When was ZippedFiles written? 
<BR>
<P>A: We don't know for sure. We received the first sample from the field on June
<BR>
10th, from the Czech Republic. The virus has been reported to be out there as
<BR>
early as 6th of June. Moreover, the virus contains this internal date:
<BR>
&quot;1999/04/14 12:50&quot;. It is possible that the virus has been out there for a
<BR>
longer time, possible even weeks. 
<BR>
<P>Q: Why was this new network-spreading capability not detected until now? 
<BR>
<P>A: The virus is big, over 200kB. It's simple to add detection and removal of a
<BR>
worm like this, but it takes days to fully disassemble and understand a program
<BR>
of this size. 
<BR>
<P>Q: Who wrote it? 
<BR>
<P>A: We do not know. 
<BR>
<P>Q: Will he/she be caught? 
<BR>
<P>A: If he/she was careful when releasing the virus, probably not. It is easy to
<BR>
be completely anonymous in the net. 
<BR>
<P>Q: How widespread is it? 
<BR>
<P>A: Very widespread, although at this time not as widespread as Melissa or CIH 
<BR>
were during spring, 1999. It seems to be especially widespread in North America
<BR>
<P>and the UK. 
<BR>
<P>Q: Why North America and UK? 
<BR>
<P>A: The virus replies to every e-mail received by the infected computer. 
<BR>
However, the reply is written in English. If a German-speaking user sends an 
<BR>
e-mail to another German, he would get suspicious if the reply appears in 
<BR>
English. 
<BR>
<P>Q: Does the virus work only with Outlook? 
<BR>
<P>A: The virus tries to work with other e-mail programs as well (those which 
<BR>
support MAPI).