Yellowknife (Aug 27/03) - Computer viruses have swept through Yellowknife, causing havoc for some computer users.

Mike Campbell and Rob Walz, computer technicians with MicroAge, have been busy fighting viruses, especially over the past couple weeks.

"There has been an increase in them recently," said Walz.

These particular viruses are known more specifically as "worms."

Worms attach themselves by e-mail to your personal computer.

There are two primary worms out now. The first is called, Sobig, while the second and more prevalent goes by two names: MSBlaster and MSBlaster Luvsan, --known collectively as Blaster.

"A worm attaches itself by e-mail and this one gets into your machine and it starts looking through everything to resend itself," said Walz. "Most just attach themselves to your address book but this one even goes into your documents looking to resend itself."

Campbell and Walz say there's no cash incentive to spreading a virus.

"Once they (programmers) get used to designing one worm they have a template and it becomes easier to program another," said Campbell.

"It tends to be mostly teenagers. There's so many different variables, it could be a programmer angry with a former employer. Until you catch up with these people it's impossible to tell what their motivations are," said Walz.

Campbell adds the focus of the worms seems to be more PC-based computers rather than Macs.

"Blaster shuts down your computer ... it's not malicious, it's just more annoying because it shuts off before most users can clean it off," said Campbell, adding the worm only affe cts Windows XP and Windows 2000. The best way to ensure your system isn't attacked by a worm is to have an up-to-date virus scanner, said Ryan Walker, manager of sales at SSI Micro. Although there are occasional warning signs indicating a virus is lurking, the best prevention, according to Walker, is simply "user education." Since the most common entry for a virus is through e-mail accounts, Anne Kennedy, director of public affairs at NorthwesTel, warned computer users to refrain from opening anything unfamiliar. "Do not open anything that looks suspicious," said Kennedy. "If you have no idea who the e-mail is from, don't open it."