Klez worm fizzles; 2nd virus hits UBS PaineWebber

SAN FRANCISCO: Klez.E, an Internet worm programmed to destroy computer files
on infected machines on the six day of every other month, failed on Wednesday to
wreak much damage, while another computer virus struck retail brokerage UBS
PaineWebber.

That virus, which was not identified, hit the broker on Tuesday and proved to
be a temporary inconvenience to employees, but not clients, said David Walker, a
spokesman for UBS PaineWebber in New York, which has 20,000 brokers in the
United States and more than 2 million customers.

While many of the company's individual broker terminals were affected,
brokers still had access to information through centralized computers, according
to the company. "Now, the vast majority of personnel have access,"
said Walker. "At all times, clients had access to information and
systems."

Meanwhile, the threat from the Klez e-mail worm was minimal because
anti-virus vendors had updated their software to block it months ago. It was
first discovered in November, but the latest version, which was designed to
delete and overwrite files, wasn't discovered until this month.

"We had reports of a few dozen machines with damage" in Europe,
said Mikko Hypponen, manager of anti-virus research at F-Secure, based in
Helsinki. "It could have been much worse."