LONDON, England (Reuters) -- A new computer virus, the "Fizzer" worm, spread rapidly across the Internet on Monday, infecting computer users in Asia, Europe and the United States, anti-virus officials said.
Businesses in Asia were the first to report the attack. By mid-day in Europe, tens of thousands of computer users had been hit, with more cases expected in North America as the business day wears on.
UK-based virus detection firm MessageLabs recorded 17,765 cases in 24 hours to 1530 GMT. "We"ve upgraded it to high-risk just for the fact that we"ve seen so many in the last day," said Mark Toshack, a virus analyst at MessageLabs.
The worm, which carries random subject lines, disables computer users" anti-virus and firewall software, but is otherwise not a threat to users" personal files. The biggest headache was the extra traffic it generated, bogging down corporate networks.
Update: Thanks Michel who commented that full details on this worm can be viewed here