Original URL: https://www.theregister.com/2000/05/05/love_bug_mutates_faster_than/

Love Bug mutates faster than Pokemon

ILOVEYOU times four

By Tim Richardson

Posted in On-Prem, 5th May 2000 09:17 GMT

Net users may have been left with an unsightly love bite after yesterday's electronic billet-doux but experts are warning that the worst is yet to come. For the "love bug" has mutated itself into at least four new variants, according to Ohio-based virus busters, Central Command. According to this outfit, the variants have been spreading as fast as the original ILOVEYOU worm and with the same deadly payload. It has already reached an epidemic level never seen before throughout the world, the company said. The known variants have "ILOVEYOU", "Susitikim shi vakara kavos puodukui..." and "Fw: Joke" in the subect line. "We are now seeing four new variants of the I-Worm.LoveLetter worm spreading rapidly in-the-wild and expecting this number to increase in the next few days," said Steven Sundermeier, manager of Technical Services at Central Command Inc. Central Command reckons some 2.5 million PC users have been infected in the US alone by the "love bug" or its variants.