Damage caused in Hong Kong by a computer virus expected to deliver a destructive payload yesterday was minimal, according to sources in the anti-virus field.
One reason could be that the Klez.e virus has been around since mid-January and information on it has been available since then. The payload, set to activate on the sixth day of every month, would have over-written files on infected computers.
The virus is a variant of the Klez worms that first appeared in October and spread by e-mailing themselves to addresses in users' Microsoft Outlook address books.
David Sykes, North Asia director for anti-virus firm Symantec, said the company had no reports of Klez.e damage yesterday, partly because updated virus definitions for the Klez family had been available for a long time.
'They [users] have had plenty of time to patch. The vast majority of people would have done that. The person who's going to get hit here is the person who hasn't got any anti-virus protection, hasn't updated,' he said.
As of yesterday evening, there were no reports of massive damage done by the Klez payload.