SIKESTON -- Since Monday, a virus-like worm has triggered frustration worldwide among thousands of Microsoft XP and Microsoft 2000 users including some in Sikeston and its surrounding communities.
For example, employees at the Sikeston Area Higher Education Center, became agitated Tuesday as the worm wriggled its way into some of SAHEC's computers.
"It was frustrating, but it wasn't anything to panic about," admitted Judy Buck, SAHEC director. "We were in the middle of registration, and it would restart, kick back up again for about five minutes and then shut down again."
A phone call to Southeast Missouri State University and a visit from its computer services personnel fixed SAHEC's problems, Buck said.
"It didn't take that long (to fix). No records were lost, and everything's fine now," Buck said.
Nicknamed "LovSan'' or ''blaster,'' the worm is a subclass of a virus that generally spreads without user action and distributes itself across networks. It can consume memory or network capacity, causing a computer to stop responding, according to the Microsoft Product Support Services, which first reported the worm.
When the worm infects a computer, the machine gets rebooted or the file "msblast.exe" exists on the system, MPSS stated. Apparently SAHEC wasn't alone Tuesday. Other area businesses were also affected and some are still being infected by the worm, according to Jaye Butler of Software Hardware in Sikeston.
"I still have people walking through my door," Butler said Wednesday.
On the national level, the worm forced Maryland's motor vehicle agency to close for the day and kicked Swedish Internet users offline as the worm spread, triggering Windows computers to shut down and restart.
Security experts said the world was lucky this time because LovSan is comparatively mild and doesn't destroy files. They worry that a subsequent attack exploiting the same flaw -- one of the most severe to afflict Windows -- could be much more damaging.
''We think we're going to be dealing with it for quite some time,'' said Dan Ingevaldson, engineering manager at Internet Security Systems in Atlanta.
Although LovSan did not appear to do any permanent damage, Ingevaldson said instructions to do just that could easily be written into a worm that propagates in the same way.
The latest infection was dubbed ''LovSan'' because of a love note left on vulnerable computers: ''I just want to say LOVE YOU SAN!''
Researchers also discovered another message hidden inside the infection that appeared to taunt Microsoft's chairman: ''billy gates why do you make this possible? Stop making money and fix your software!''
Tracing its origins will be difficult because the worm left few clues, said Marc Maiffret, co-founder of eEye Digital Security. The worm appeared based on code released earlier by a Chinese research group that goes by Xfocus, Maiffret said.
Although a "critical" warning by the Microsoft to its consumers came out in mid-July telling them about a free downloadable patch that prevents LovSan and other similar viruses, many people put it on the back burner.
What's bad is the Internet Protocol people use such technical jargon, which makes it difficult for the average Joe to understand what's going on, Butler pointed out.
"The good thing is this is not malicious," Butler said. "We're actually lucky because they could have wiped our whole computer systems out. Instead, they've created a patch for the worm."
Once the patch has been installed, Butler said computer users need to try and make sure there aren't anymore viruses existing on their computers. The best way is to take the computer to the shop and let a professional protect it against any other viruses, Butler advised. Updating antivirus programs can also help prevent future infections, he added.
"Even if you put on patch, it doesn't do it any good if you don't check for other viruses," Butler cautioned.
All Windows users, whether their computers were infected or not, were encouraged to obtain a fix from Microsoft's Web site. Anti-virus and firewall products should also be updated, security experts say.
Larger companies typically have firewalls that can stem attacks, but once a worm gets inside a firewall, unprotected computers are vulnerable.
For more information on LoveSan or to download a patch, visit www.microsoft.com.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.