THE BUGBEAR VIRUS is rapidly spreading around the world, according to alerts issued by antivirus companies and computer security experts. The virus first appeared Monday and has since spread rapidly.

The virus is sent as an e-mail attachment with a variety of subject lines including "bad news," "Membership Confirmation," "Market Update Report," and "Your Gift." Code in the virus generates random attachment names and subject lines to avoid easy detection by antivirus software and assigns multiple file extensions to the virus to disguise the fact that it is an executable file, according to Vincent Gullotto, vice president of the McAfee AVERT (Anti-Virus Emergency Response Team) at Network Associates. 

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