Many users of this site are currently reporting an outbreak of a new variation of the Sobig virus which is filling e-mail mailboxes everywhere. This virus spreads by sending a copy of itself to all e-mail addresses that it finds on an infected machine, disguising itself as an attachment from another address it finds.

There are reports of some individuals receiving over 500 of these virus e-mails in less than a day, and the problem continues to grow extremely quickly.

Please can all users of this site ensure that they are running an up-to-date virus checker on their machines, with current virus definition updates, to prevent further spread and disruption. There is also a stand-alone tool for removal of the virus if you do not have virus checking software on your machine (which everyone here should!)

For further information, check out the following links.

Symantec: http://securityresponse.symantec.com/avcenter/venc/data/w32.sobig.f@mm.html

McAfee: http://us.mcafee.com/virusInfo/default.asp?id=description&virus_k=100561

McAfee AVERT Stinger (Stand-alone removal tool): http://vil.nai.com/vil/stinger/

BBC News: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/3164861.stm

Sophos: http://www.sophos.com/virusinfo/articles/sobigf.html