“Network Associates has reported an outbreak of a Word Macro
virus among banks and financial institutions in eight different
countries.”
“The ‘Thursday’ virus was first detected last month, and was
reported by several anti-virus companies. It is a Word 97 macro
virus that infects the normal.dot file. Network Associates
said the virus will attempt to delete all files on a user’s C
drive on December 13.
A spokesman for the company said that the virus may have spread
to at least one other industry, although it does not appear to have
begun striking consumers.”
“…another concern is that the virus is a ‘sleeper,’ meaning
users may not know they’re infected until December 13, when they
could lose their files. The date is also an issue because it is so
close to the Year 2000 deadline, when companies IT departments are
busy dealing with other problems.”