The 'ILOVEYOU' e-mail worm, which cost business more than US$300 million, could turn out to be just a wake-up call for a catastrophic virus of the future.
The same type of computer bug could be used to deliver a far more malicious payload which could breach security, steal sensitive files and passwords, and erase network disks, according to e-business intelligence house Gartner Asia Pacific, whose research director, Joseph Sweeney, several years ago forecast a Love Bug-style attack.
There is a 90 per cent chance of an e-mail-borne macro-virus outbreak by 2003, which will cost business more than US$2 billion, Mr Sweeney said last week.
'I suspect the ILOVEYOU virus, which was really more of a worm, was a hybrid - call it a 'Franken-worm',' he said.
Sooner or later, another such 'e-mail bomb' would be launched, with a nuclear warhead attached, he said. It would find and attack all network servers, steal passwords and then forward confidential files to other addresses.
It could scramble data and then back it up repeatedly, overloading and crippling systems. But this next one would use stealth, he said. The life of a virus is usually three days, so it might creep into systems and hide for a few days till everyone thought it had gone away, before letting rip.