This is a short announcement that we virus reported yesterday, MyDoom, which has since broken all records for infection rates and spread, now has a brother. Disturbingly, this brother is speading very very fast, and unless you updated your virus definitions TODAY, you are likely to be unprotected.

MyDoom.B is a very similar virus with a few 'improvements' that may trick people already aware to the original MyDoom methods. By associating some of its most dangerous attachment formats - .exe files for example - with the Notepad icon, this virus pretends to be a harmless text file, when it really is the virus payload.

Additionally, by embedding itself in Zip files like the original MyDoom virus, it gets through a number of the simpler virus blocking engines, but of course, you normally still need to open the Zip file and execute the virus contained within to become infected.

Finally, in a slight twist of the revenge demonstrated in the first MyDoom virus - which targeted the SCO Group with a denial of service attack and resulted in the corporation offering a $250K reward for finding the virus writers - the MyDoom.B virus attacks a number of Microsoft sites and also blocks an wide range of antivirus websites, thus making it harder for people to download patches.

To remove the MyDoom.B virus, please run your Antivirus software with the latest data file installed.

Also, please remember, this virus does NOT affect Mac computers - only Windows users who think they may be infected should use this resource.