VIRUS Alert - W32.Bagle.T

Use Extreme Caution

A serious virus has been identified that is infecting machines throughout the Internet. The virus is disguising itself as a warning from your ISP or email Server. Here's is a link to the detailed explanation of the virus and the things you should watch out for in your email (details).

This virus is another variant of the Bagel virus (Bagel.Q, Bagel.S, Bagel.T) that is threatening to infect your PC. This virus is a new twist that takes advantage of a security vulnerability in Internet Explorer (click here for details). The virus is spread via email through a specially crafted message that causes the unsuspecting user to open the email. The email message then accesses a remote web site and downloads a script that infects the users PC.

Once infected the virus spreads itself by sending the virus to others listed in your address book. It also disables many popular virus scanners and firewalls along with opening a backdoor on your PC where you will be vulnerable to further attacks.

The following actions are recommended:

(1) Do not open any emails where you do not know the sender of the email or the email is titled in a way that is suspicious.
(2) Visit the Sterling virus information site. This site contains links and information on the various Anti-Virus software vendors. These vendors provide more information on the viruses as well as tools to help clean your machine if you have been infected.
(3) Check to see if your version of Internet Explorer requires the patch, by going to the windows update page.

In the event that you did open the email, you will need to disinfect your machine.

If you have a virus scanner, you will need to get an updated signature file from your virus scanning vendor and do a full scan of your machine. If you are unfamiliar with how to do this, please contact your virus scanning vendor.

If you do not have any virus scanning software there is an online scanner provided from Panda Software. You can find a link to it on our virus information page.

If you have any further questions about the virus, please contact your anti-virus software vendor for more information.