MEMORANDUM


TO: University Community

FROM: Information Resources Management

SUBJECT: VIRUS Warning

DATE: January 23, 2001



Please be advised that IRM has been notified of the presence of a virus
called W97M.Melissa.W. The new variant of this old virus is especially
dangerous to Mac users and those communicating with Mac users. To protect
your system from any new virus threats, including this one, it is
important that you update your antivirus software "definitions" files to
reflect current known viruses. Some information about this virus is
included below. For more detailed information, please refer to

W97M.Melissa.W.html.

If you cannot get to the above web page, or cannot understand the
information there, please call the IRM Support Center at 305-348-2284 so
that we can help you.

Thank you for your attention to this notification.

IRM

------------------------

 W97M.Melissa.W is a macro virus for Word97 that spreads via
 the email program MS Outlook. This virus creates an Outlook
 object that sends an infected document to the first 50
 addresses in the address book.

 The email comes with the subject line "Important Message
 From" Application.UserName, with a body text of "Here is
 that document you asked for ... don't show anyone else ;-)"
 and a document attached. The content of the document is a
 list of pornographic Web sites.

 First discovered on March 26, 1999, this virus is now in a
 new file format for Word9X / Office2001 for Mac. It is
 specific to Mac Office2001 and can infect a host system
 running Office98 (also for Mac) or Office 2000. This virus
 will infect Office97 systems that have been updated to SR1
 update and above.

 PC Users: This variant can infect users of Windows Office 97
 or 2000 if they receive the email message from a Mac user.