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Bugbear virus

SYDNEY, Friday (AFP) Millions of computers worldwide have been infected this week by a fast-replicating virus called Bugbear and security experts warned Friday that the threat was still accelerating.

Bugbear, known as a mass-mailing worm because it spreads itself through computer users' e-mail programs, was first identified by a security team in Sydney on Sunday, said Lindy Yarnold, a computer security expert with Symantec. Since then it has spread worldwide, affecting millions of computers in Europe, the United States and Asia, with Britain being the hardest hit followed by Australia and New Zealand, experts said.

"We have upgraded this threat from a category 3 to a category 4, our second highest threat level," Yarnold told AFP. "At category 4, that would mean millions of users affected," she said. Yarnold said that by Thursday, Symantec was receiving more reports of computers infected by Bugbear.

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