Investing Internet Technology Windows Internet Tech. A computer virus spread by e-mail messages and IRC began tainting computer systems worldwide Thursday, striking Asia before quickly spreading to the United States and Europe. It originally included a component which sent network passwords cached by Windows to an attacker's site when an infected user connects to the Internet. That feature, which worked through a backdoor created in the Philippines, has been disabled.
Victims sometimes receive dozens of e-mail messages, all contaminated with the virus.
The virus, which appeared in Hong Kong late Thursday afternoon, seemed to particularly hit, among other businesses, public relations firms and investment banks. Dow Jones and the Asian Wall Street Journal offices in Asia were among its victims. In Hong Kong, Japanese brokerage Nomura International Ltd. was one of the first to get hit. It also struck the company's London office, he said. It just multiplies through the system and eradicates whole address books.