E-mail virus attacks NASA server

WASHINGTON - An e-mail virus has attacked servers across the world, including those at NASA and Google, and possibly the US internal security department office.

The virus, called “here you have” or “VBMania”, is a simple Trojan Horse that arrives in your inbox with the odd-but-suggestive subject line “here you have”, the Fox News said Saturday.

The body reads “This is The Document I told you about, you can find it Here” or “This is The Free Download Sex Movies, you can find it Here”.

The Internet Storm Center, a free analysis and warning service that tracks malicious internet activity, reported that the initial application that generated the vast cloud of spam clogging servers had been taken down, which should limit the spread of the virus Friday.

However, the centre warned: “New variants may well follow.”

Leading virus monitors such as McAfee Labs and Symantec are currently investigating the threat, and have already updated their website to push security products that could protect users.

“Stop or remove the virus with Norton Internet Security 2011,” advised Symantec on its site Friday morning. The security companies describe “here you have” as especially challenging to monitor, since the virus may already have replicated into several new forms.

In addition to a variety of major corporations, the virus appeared to take down internal servers at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Thursday. Sources said that some DHS agencies that run on the Immigration and Customs Enforcement server crashed and were mostly disabled throughout Thursday.

But US officials denied that issues with its servers were related to the virus, saying that “DHS was not among the agencies that were affected”.

“It’s a phishing attack — when you click on the link in an e-mail it goes into the address book. It was clogging a bunch of e-mail and that’s it,” officials said.