Dealing with the Mydoom virus

print Mydoom virus

A rapidly spreading new variant of the Mydoom computer worm is now infecting computers worldwide causing havoc by churning out infected e-mails. The latest version of the "MyDoom" Internet worm is fairly easy to identify and prevent from infecting your computer as it arrives in an easily recognisable email. The virus can infect computers running Windows 95, 98, ME, NT, 2000 and XP.

Here are some easy steps you can take to keep your computer safe.

The virus arrives as an attachment to what appears to be a bounced message sent from an infected computer's e-mail account. It invites a user to open the attachment to see why the message never reached its destination. Do NOT open the attachment because this will launch the virus. Generally you should not open an attachment unless it is from a trusted source and has been scanned by antivirus software.
Update your antivirus software so that this new variant can be detected and handled appropriately.
If you do open the attachment and your antivirus software is not updated your computer will be infected. If this happens to you, immediately download, install and run Symantecs fix tool available here. You should select to open the FxMydoom.exe and once downloaded click on Start to scan your system (this may take a while depending on the number of files on your computer).