The worm -- a computer program that propagates itself over a network -- has been moving through Europe and Asia over the last two days via e-mails with the subject heading "new photos from my party!"

But specialists confirmed to China Daily Tuesday that the worm was only moderately dangerous.

Zhang Jian -- chief engineer at the National Computer Virus Emergency Response Center -- said: "It is only active if a computer user opens the e-mail and -- unlike its menacing peers Nimda and Code Red, which damaged servers last year -- 'my party' is dormant.''

The state-funded center, located in north China's industrial hub of Tianjin, is the top virus monitor in China.

Kingsoft Co, one of the largest anti-virus software makers in China, has decoded the original source of "My party.''

Xia Ji, an engineer with the Beijing-based firm, confirmed Tuesday that anti-virus warriors have found that the worm was designed to attack between February 25 and 29.

However, the firm said it was unable to predict what kind of impact the worm would generate then. The worm is now in a latent stage, which means those who clicked on the message will be hit when the attack time arrives next month.

The "my party'' worm spreads by infiltrating the Microsoft Windows Address Book e-mail program and the Outlook Express database.

The worm e-mails itself to every person in an infected user's e-mail address book, making it look as if the worm has come from a colleague or friend, experts said.

The worm arrives as an e-mail with an innocuous-looking attachment called www.myparty.yahoo.com.

A message in the body of the e-mail reads: "Hello! My party... It was absolutely amazing! I have attached my web page with new photos! If you can, please make color prints of my photos. Thanks!''

Zhang, of the National Computer Virus Emergency Response Center, warned that, although "my party'' is not very dangerous, a tough war was looming this year as computer worms are upgrading their attack capability.

The problem is made worse by the growing collusion between worms and hackers.

Kingsoft engineer Xia said: "It sounds like the 'fifth column' in cyberspace. The hackers can manipulate your private data at will, such as credit-card numbers, your love letters and the corporate deals you are working on.''

Daniel Cheng, managing director in China of Symantec Information Technology (Beijing) Limited, said that computer users should tackle the problem via an integrated solution rather than rely solely on anti-virus software as a defense.

"Right now, computer users are still lax on bug defense. They do not know that an anti-virus program is far from enough to deal with other worms and hackers,'' said Cheng, a seasoned anti-virus specialist.

Chinese computer users can find defense tips at www.iduba.net.

(China Daily January 30, 2002)