A new e-mail worm that takes advantage of a flaw in Internet Explorer 6 and appears to come from a recipient's computer system administator is racing across the Internet today.
Mimail.A includes the words "Your Account" in the subject line and comes with an attachment named MESSAGE.ZIP. Symantec Corp., which makes Norton Antivirus software, has pegged Mimail's threat level at 3 out of a possible 4.
Vincent Weafer, senior director for Symantec Security Response, said the worm does not appear to be destructive, but it is spreading rapidly across the Internet, and may be bogging down e-mail servers.
He said the appearance of the worm caught many companies and individuals by surprise.
"I suspect that, after the weekend, it will die down as companies update their firewalls and consumers download new antivirus definitions," he said.
The worm tricks users into opening the attachment because it appears to come from someone who works on the computer network within the receiver's domain. For example, users who are on America Online may see the worm with a From: adddress of admin@aol.com.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security earlier this week warned of a threat to the Internet from hackers and virus writers taking advantage of a recently found flaw in Microsoft's Windows operating systems. Weafer said Mimail does not appear to be related, taking advantage of a different flaw.
More information is available at Symantec's Web site.