New on the NIMDA Virus

There is a Dutch website that provides a test on vulnerability of your Internet browser to the infection with NIMDA from an infected website:

"http://nimtest.do.tn.tudelft.nl/nimda/index.html"

The description on this website is too techy but the bottom line is: if you see a dialog box saying "Hellow World!", your computer *will* be infected when you visit a website infected with NIMDA-type virus.

Although many of the web servers that use MS IIS have been patched by now, it is expected that the wave of infections will reoccur in the future.

As of the recent days, all Netscape browsers seem to be immune.

Opera is immune.

Some versions (5.01) of MS Internet Explorer will run the virus file without warning and will infect your computer.

Other version of MS Internet Explorer will download the virus and *prompt* you whether you want to run the file (and consequently infect your machine). So be careful if you go on using MS Internet Explorer.

The Dutch author also writes:

"... due to the tight integration of Internet Explorer in the operating system and its cooperation with other applications like mail and HTML-help, it seems likely that Internet Explorer is the most vulnerable candidate [for infection spreading]."

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10/5/2001