It is a variant of the Mimail virus and it is spreading quickly clogging e-mail servers around the world. According to several anti-virus companies MyDoom is one of the fastest spreading worms ever seen.

This virus arrives as e-mail with several different random subject lines, such as "Mail Delivery System," "Test" or "Mail Transaction Failed." The body of the e-mail contains a technical-sounding statement such as: "The message contains Unicode characters and has been sent as a binary attachment." This virus creates a spoofed “From field”, so the message may appear to be from someone you know.

If the recipient clicks on the MyDoom attachment the virus is unleashed and it installs a program that allows the computer to be remotely controlled. The virus is also set to send data to the SCO Group’s Web server starting February 1 in an effort to overwhelm that Web server. The SCO Group has become a target of many Linux supporters since its recent claims that several important pieces of the free Linux are covered by SCO’s Unix copyright.

The hidden program that MyDoom uses to try to harm the SCO Web site also would allow a malicious hacker to remotely control an infected computer. This is one dangerous virus. It also contains a key-logging program that can record a user’s keyboard strokes. Such programs are often used to steal passwords and credit card information.

Evidently, the technical sound of the e-mail is enticing many computer users to click on the attachment and unleash the virus. The virus affects computers running Windows versions 95, 98, ME, NT, 2000 and XP. Don’t be fooled by this one! Don’t open e-mail attachments that you are not expecting, and as always, install a good anti-virus program and make sure that it is updated regularly.

NOTE: MyDoom-B is a variant that contains a scheduled denial-of-service attach against Microsoft as well as SCO.

UPDATE: On February 1, 2004 SCO’s Web site was inundated with so much traffic from MyDoom that the site was completely unavailable. Both Microsoft and SCO are offering $250,000 reward for the capture of the MyDoom creator.