Computer Virus Attacks Through Holiday Greetings
The Zafi e-mail worm has resurfaced again, but this time it is hiding behind holiday greetings with the subject Merry Christmas. Some of the e-mail contains the message Happy Hollydays with best wishes from Jaime.
The infected e-mail often has the Zafi.D mass-mailing worm as a zip file attachment. However, instead of a holiday present, the attachment unleashes a series of malicious code to alter and exploit your computer.
According to antivirus companies, the Zafi.D worm reconfigures the Windows operating system to shutdown security software and then collects e-mail addresses from files on the computer. Once gathered, the worm sends copies of itself to all the addresses via a built-in SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol).
Antivirus companies have labeled it a medium threat, meaning there are several existing cases and have caused significant damage.
The best solutions are to update antivirus software to acquire the latest virus definitions of the Zafi.D and to be critical of any unknown e-mail attachments.