A new computer virus, the "Fizzer" worm, spread rapidly across the Internet today, infecting computer users in Asia, Europe and the United States, anti-virus officials said.
Businesses in Asia were the first to report the attack. By mid-day in Europe, tens of thousands of computer users had been hit, with more cases expected in North America as the business day wears on.
UK-based virus detection firm MessageLabs recorded 17,765 cases in 24 hours to 4.40 p.m. but the virus has not emerged to a major extent in Ireland.
A spokesman for anti-virus software company Entropy said they had a number of queries in relation to 'Fizzer' but had no reports of any attacks as yet.
The worm, which carries random subject lines, disables computer users' anti-virus and firewall software, but is otherwise not a threat to users' personal files. The biggest headache was the extra traffic it generated, bogging down corporate networks.
The mass-mailing worm spreads via email, online chat sessions and in peer-to-peer file sharing network such as Kazaa. It affects computers using the Windows operating system.
"It sends an email message with varying format to all the addresses found in the Windows Address Book and Microsoft Outlook," Japanese security firm Trend Micro said.
The worm arrives as a file attachment with a .EXE, .PIF, .COM, or .SCR extension.