Protect your PC against the latest viruses afflicting Outlook, Outlook Express.

Protect your PC against the latest viruses afflicting Outlook, Outlook Express.

Do you think your PC's peril is increasing these days? You're right. Last year, the number of reported security threats (including viruses) more than doubled, according to the Computer Emergency Response Team Coordination Center at Carnegie Mellon University. Now more than ever you need to stay on top of virus updates. Here are the facts about two of the thorniest new attacks.

With PCs running either Internet Explorer 5.01 or 5.5, the nastiest new virus exploits a hole in Outlook and Outlook Express. Dubbed W32.Klez.E, this worm emerges when you view an infected e-mail message in the preview window. Like other worms, W32.Klez.E sends copies of itself to everyone in your address book.

There's more: On the sixth of every month, for example, W32.Klez.E tries to overwrite every file on your hard disk that has one of the following extensions:.txt,.htm,.html,.wab,.doc,.xls,.jpg,.cpp,.c,.pas,.mpg,.mpeg,.bak, or.mp3. To be extra mean, if it's January or July, it overwrites all the files on your hard drive.

You can avoid contracting the virus through your preview window by disabling the Preview Pane function, but the worm will still infect your PC if you open the message. (To turn off the preview pane, Outlook users need to select View and click Preview Pane; Outlook Express users must choose View, Layout, and uncheck " Show Preview Pane.")