Yahoo Neutralizes Email Worm Targeting Its Free Mail Users

Yahoo detected and disabled a malicious software worm designed to infiltrate its free web-based email service, the California company announced Tuesday.

The worm, known as Yamanner, appeared to have been built specifically to target Yahoo Mail accounts. Yahoo became aware of it on Monday and by the end of that day had automatically pushed out a software patch to address the problem.

Spokeswoman Kelly Podboy said the number of affected users was believed to be very small relative to Yahoo Mail's global user base, estimated by industry analysts at around 238 million people.

Yahoo urged its email users to keep anti-virus software current and to block messages arriving from the address "av3Ayahoo.com." The company said it uses filtering tools, email authentication, and industry partnerships to guard against online threats.

Historical summary. TurkishPress restated this wire report, first published in June 2006, in its own words.