A highly infective computer virus was today causing chaos for e-mail users around the world.
Sobig, which is technically known as a worm, is being sent by e-mail at a rate of around one million copies a day. Its full designation is W32.Sobig.F@mm
Anti-virus firm MessageLabs said it appeared programmed to use the computers it targets to send even more unwanted e-mails, or spam.
So many e-mails with the virus are being sent that inboxes are quickly filling up.
The first copies of the Sobig.f virus were noticed on Monday morning. By 9am, MessageLabs had stopped 3,000 copies among the 1.5m e-mail addresses it monitors worldwide. An hour later the number detected had risen to 10,000.
By the end of the day it had intercepted one million e-mails with the virus - and the same number again yesterday. No figures are available for today.
Users who think they may have an e-mail with the virus are urged not to double-click on the attachment. If they do, the advice is to download the latest anti-virus software.
The rate the Sobig virus is spreading is on par with the previous Lovebug virus which was detected in one in every 28 e-mails monitored.
There have been reports of people trying to send e-mails to a home address and being told the inbox is full. It has caused chaos around the world.
Infected e-mails appear to have one of nine subject lines: Re: details, Re: approved, Re: my details, Re: Thank you!, Re: That movie, Re: wicked screensaver, Re: your application, Your details, Thank you!
The body of the e-mail reads: (Please) see the attached file for details.
An attachment is usually one of the following files: your_document.pif , document_all.pif , thank_you.pif , your_details.pif , details.pif , document_9446.pif , application.pif , wicked_scr.scr , movie0045.pif
