CNN is reporting that the new NIMDA virus, actually a worm, appeared exactly one week after the WTC attack, almost to the minute.

Security patches available for Outlook, but not Outlook Express at present. MSNBC reports that NIMDA may arrive as an email with an attached readme.exe file.

In general, never open any attachment that is an executable.

CNN's report seemed to imply that merely clicking on the subject line of the email might be enough to infect your system, but I've seen this news item only once as a “crawler” on CNN so it's possible I may have misunderstood.

The worm also appears to attack web pages by inserting a download prompt which will then infect your machine, attack your address book and propagate itself in this manner.

I hope to return soon with a more cohesive, coherent report on this cyberattack, but in the meanwhile, let caution be your guide.

sp