THE INTERNET Network administrators work to stop fast-spreading worm

The computer virus quickly spread across the world.
SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) -- Network administrators were working to stop a fast-spreading e-mail worm that looks like a normal error message but actually contains a malicious program that spreads itself and installs a program that leaves an open door to infected computers.
The worm -- called "Mydoom," "Novarg" or "WORM--MIMAIL.R" -- was replicating itself so quickly that some corporate networks were clogged with infected traffic within hours of its appearance Monday. Its mail engine could send out 100 infected e-mail messages in 30 seconds, experts said.
It runs on computers running Microsoft Corp.'s Windows operating systems, though other computers were affected by slow network and a flood of bogus messages. About 3,800 infections were confirmed within 45 minutes of its initial discovery, according to the security firm Central Command.
"This has all the characteristics of being the next big one," said Steven Sundermeier, Central Command's vice president of products and services.
It appeared to first target large companies in the United States -- and their computers' large address books -- and quickly spread internationally, said David Perry, global director of education at the antivirus software firm Trend Micro.
"As far as I can tell right now, it's pretty much everywhere on the planet," said Vincent Gullotto, vice president of Network Associates' antivirus emergency response team.
Unlike other mass-mailing worms, Mydoom does not attempt to trick victims by promising nude pictures of celebrities or mimicking personal notes. Instead, one of its messages reads: "The message contains Unicode characters and has been sent as a binary attachment."
Subject lines also vary but can include phrases like "Mail Delivery System" and "Mail Transaction Failed." The attachments have ".exe," ".scr," ".cmd" or ".pif" extensions, and may be compressed as a Zip file.