Watch out! There's a worm in your document
Called W32.SirCam.Worm@mm, the virus "attempts to send itself and random documents to all users found in various email address books, including Outlook," Symantec said in a statement this afternoon.
W32.SirCam.Worm@mm "searches for Microsoft Office documents in the Personal/Desktop directories and attaches itself to one at random. It then mails itself and the file as one attachment to everyone in the address book," the statement added.
"The subject line of the email is the name of the file that the worm has attached itself to and distributed."
A locally-based Symantec spokesperson said that the virus was first detected in Mexico earlier today and has spread to parts of South America. There has also been few cases reported in the US.
"So far there haven't been any reports in Asia and Europe," she added.
However, she could not provide a figure to the number of affected people or reveal where the virus originated.
"We have mailed our registered users the FTP site (File Transfer Protocol) where they can download the beta for the cure," the spokesperson revealed.
"The full version can be downloaded from our site by tonight," she added.