Anthrax scare hits the web

The anthrax scare has hit the internet after a virus writer attempted to exploit users' concerns over the genuine postal attacks.

Antivirus experts are warning that two variants of an email carrying a malicious payload are circulating on the web. The messages, which appear to have originated in Spain, attempt to socially engineer the user into opening the Visual Basic Script attachments labelled as either 'ANTRAXINFO.VBS' or 'ANTRAX.JPG.VBS'.

The worms were created with the all too user friendly Visual Basic Script Worm Generator which gained notoriety after it was used to create the Kournikova virus.

Antivirus experts have warned users not to open any attached files on emails headed 'Anthrax' or 'Antrax' (the Spanish version).

If the virus does infect a machine it attempts to mail itself to all entries in the Outlook Address book and also destroys files with a .VBS or .VBE extension by overwriting them with copies of itself.

A number of people in the US have been infected with the potentially lethal real world alternative of the virus in suspected terrorist attacks. Late last week Microsoft's Nevada office was targeted.