If You Get This E-Mail, Delete It ASAP: Subject Line "Merry Christmas"; Attachment titled "Happy Hollydays".

Beware this e-mail Grinch! A virus embedded inside electronic holiday greetings could make your computer more vulnerable to spammers or hackers if you click on it and download it. The "Zafi" e-mail worm comes with the subject line "Merry Christmas" and an attachment titled "Happy Hollydays." (Note the odd spelling.) The worm is in the attachment and is only activated if it's downloaded and executed.

In less than 24 hours, the Zafi worm has spread across 18 European countries, but so far it has not made a big impact in the United States. The time difference between Europe and the United States has allowed antivirus companies to update their virus protection software. This is the fourth variation of Zafi worm, which was first detected in April. But this time it comes with a clever twist. By detecting the location of the domain name, Zafi translates the message title of "Merry Christmas" into language that matches that domain. So if the domain has an ".fr" in it, Zafi would list the subject line in French. This increases the probability that someone will open the e-mail.

Zafi is now considered a "medium" threat. For more information on this newest threat, please visit ITaP Networks and Security's Virus Alerts page located at: http://www.purdue.edu/securepurdue/news/. You can also download McAfee Antivirus Software to prevent this and other threats from our Software Download page located at: https://www.purdue.edu/securepurdue/download/.