The latest worm to hit users of the Windows operating system (except Windows 3.x) is clogging up networks but that is only part of the problem, sysadmins say.

Anti-virus software on mail servers is producing as much traffic, by sending notifications for each and every message which is blocked. This creates loads of additional traffic and compounds the problem.

Marc Maiffret, chief hacking officer of the security firm eEye Digital Security said it was a rather annoying, and spam-like, problem that anti-virus software would blindly notify people that their system was supposedly infected.

"This is because most viruses these days 'spoof' their source addresses. Therefore people will receive viruses that look like they are from a friend when in reality they are not," said Maiffret, a respected figure in security circles.

By Sam Varghese at The Age.

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