Symantec''s new year''s eve virus vigil

Symantec has announced that its Asia Pacific offices will be staffed throughout New Year's Eve and on the New Year day, as part of it worldwide initiative SMART (Symantec Millennium Action Response Team) to provide assistance to companies and easy access to Symantec's expertise on Y2K related issues and problems. In India, Symantec's support engineers and technical support analysts will be available round the clock to offer support to customers on 31 December 1999, and 1 January 2000.

Symantec's engineers at SARC (Symantec Anti-virus Research Centre) are analysing new threats and creating technologies to combat the potential havoc viruses may cause on New Year's Eve and monitoring viruses that may take advantage of the Y2K transition period.

David Banes, regional manager, SARC, says, "While the Y2K bug has nothing to do with the viruses, there is every chance that virus writers will try to take advantage of the 2000 date by creating viruses that make reference to the new millennium. In order to be prepared for this, SARC will analyse virus samples over the new year period, quickly provide virus information and definition updates to protect customers against all known threats."

SARC has identified the most common, key elements typical of malicious programs that are known to pose Y2K threats. A Y2K virus worm or trojan will do one or more of the following things:

• Trigger on or around Saturday, 1 Jan 2000
• Display messages about Y2K issues
• Reset the system clock to simulate a Y2K problem
• Modify programs or data to simulate a Y2K problem
• Masquerade as a Y2K patch, program fix, or update

The company has created a virus awareness centre on its website at www.symantec.com/avcenter/y2k to
provide the latest information on Y2K and viruses.