A lack of consensus on the way that new viruses are named led to confusion among anti-virus companies this week and may have resulted in some users being unsure whether they were protected against the latest variant of the Yaha worm.

Anti-virus vendors began seeing a new minor variant of the Yaha mass-mailing worm shortly before Christmas. The first copies seemed to be coming from Middle Eastern countries, including Kuwait. AV vendors were quick to recognize the worm's characteristics and identify it as a version of Yaha, a worm that had first appeared around Valentine's Day last year. But that's where the agreement ended and the confusion began.

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