Yet another mass mailing email worm is spreading across the Net today.

Lovgate.C is a mass-mailing virus which incorporates its own SMTP engine and (of particular concern) a backdoor key-logging component.

Blocking .exe attachments in email (which corporate security managers should do anyway) will block its spread. Users, whether in business or at home, may want to update their AV signature files to detect the virus, which is spreading - though not to the extent where normal Internet traffic is being significantly affected.

MessageLabs, the message filtering specialists, has blocked just over 2,000 copies of the Lovgate.C worm since first spotting it earlier today. That makes Lovgate.C currently the fifth most prolific worm on the Net, but way behind the Klez worm (which MessageLabs has stopped more than 11,000 times over the last 24 hours). ®