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BenefitsLink Newsletter

New U.S. tax and labor law materials on the net pertaining to
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USERS OF MICROSOFT WORD 97 AND 2000 -- WATCH FOR HOSTILE EMAIL
MESSAGES

Please pardon this intrusion, but this looks like something we thought would
be worth sharing with BenefitsLink Newsletter readers --

The "Melissa" macro virus is spreading worldwide in the form of an email
message that contains an infected Word document as an attachment.

You should DELETE (do not open) any incoming email that contains this
subject:

   Subject: Important Message From <name>

(where <name> is the full name of the user sending the message)

if the text of the message contains the following:

   Here is that document you asked for ... don't show anyone else ;-)

The email includes an attachment called "list.doc" -- the trouble arises if
that attachment is opened using Word 97 or Word 2000, if "macros" have been
enabled. Once that file is opened, the virus propagates itself by sending an
email message in the format described above to the first 50 entries in every
"MAPI" address book readable by the user executing the macro. In order to
successfully propagate, the affected machine must have Microsoft Outlook
installed; however, Outlook does not need to be the mailer used to read the
message.

The macro then infects the Normal.dot template file. By default, all Word
documents utilize the Normal.dot template; thus, any newly created Word
document will be infected. Because unpatched versions of Word97 may trust
macros in templates the virus may execute without warning.

Finally, if the minute of the hour matches the day of the month at this
point, the macro inserts into the current document the message "Twenty-two
points, plus triple-word-score, plus fifty points for using all my letters.
Game's over. I'm outta here."

If you receive one of these messages, keep in mind that the message came
from someone who is affected by this virus and they are not necessarily
targeting you.

For more information, see the Carnegie-Mellon Software Engineering
Institute's page at

   http://www.cert.org/advisories/CA-99-04-Melissa-Macro-Virus.html

This virus is not being spread via the BenefitsLink Newsletter, but I
thought it would be worth sharing this information with you as a subscriber
because by definition you're an email user. Thanks!

Dave Baker
BenefitsLink - Employee benefits jobs and more
www.BenefitsLink.com

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