THE CUTTING EDGE : Firm Warns of ‘Cholera’ E-Mail Virus

Computer Associates International Inc. said Wednesday it has identified a new computer virus named “Cholera” that has the potential to overwhelm e-mail systems and block computer users from opening files.

The virus, which hasn’t yet been reported to have infected any computers, is designed to overwhelm e-mail networks by sending messages to all the addresses in an infected computer’s hard drive and prevents users from opening files stored in infected directories, the software maker said.

“We’ve been given a sample of the virus, but we haven’t had one customer report on this,” said Sal Viveros, a marketing manager with Network Associates Inc., a computer security company.

The Cholera virus can infect computers via e-mail. Computer Associates said the e-mail contains only a “:)” and no text. When the attachment to the e-mail is opened, it will infect that computer and could spread on the network.

The virus is similar to two others, Worm.ExploreZip and Melissa, that infected computers worldwide this year, causing millions of dollars in damage from lost files and productivity.