Four Israeli youths have been arrested for designing and spreading round the world the destructive computer virus known as Goner, which uses e-mail address books to infect machines via the Internet.
"The national fraud unit arrested four juveniles from the north of Israel on Friday for having written the virus and sent it out," said police spokesman Gil Kleiman.
He said the youths had been remanded in custody until Monday, when they would appear before a magistrate. Goner, technically known as a "worm," was described by police as a "very destructive" upgrade of the Melissa virus which caused millions of dollars of damage two years ago.
It works by entering a computer via an e-mail attachment. When a user opens the attachment, the worm enters the user's e-mail address book and then sends itself out to other users.
Left behind is a program that begins erasing data files.
Goner also tries to deactivate computer anti-virus programs by erasing the applications' data files.
The worm also infects computers via instant messaging, now a very popular way for users to send real-time text messages and files to each other over the Internet.
The virus comes at a time when users are sending lots of e-mails to acquaintances for the holiday season.
AFP