A new version of the Mydoom computer worm is spreading and is slowing the performance of Google and other Internet search engines.
The SANS Internet Storm Centre in the US said the mass-mailing worm was tapping into search engines in an effort to find more e-mail addresses to spread further. 'The latest version of MyDoom, which started arriving in people's mail boxes in force yesterday, uses search engines to find more recipients for its message,' SANS, a privately funded security centre, said.
'Once the virus is started, it searches the users files for domain names. Once it spots a domain name it will search various search engines for valid e-mail addresses within these domains. These search engines include Lycos, Google, Altavista, Yahoo and possibly others.'
The worm, like many other viruses, can install a 'backdoor' programme that may allow hackers to take control of an infected computer to send spam e-mail or to bombard websites with so-called denial of service attacks.
The original Mydoom worm infected over one million computers worldwide at its peak in late January and highlighted the vulnerability of the Internet to infections that allow affected computers to be controlled for hacker attacks.
A Google spokesman acknowledged that the search giant's website 'experienced slowness for a short period of time yesterday because of the MyDoom virus, which flooded major search engines with automated searches.'
A spokeswoman for Yahoo said the virus briefly affected its search engine. But because of ongoing surveillance of the site, the company was able to quickly restore service.
