A computer virus that exploits a recently discovered security hole in Microsoft's Windows software spread rapidly around the world Tuesday and forced the Maryland Motor Vehicle Administration to shut its offices for the day.

The worm, dubbed LoveSan, Blaster or MSBlaster, was first detected Monday morning and has spread to at least 127,000 computers worldwide in the past 24 hours, according to a Los Angeles Times online report.

The computers that are vulnerable to attack are those that use Microsoft's Windows 2000 and Windows XP operating programs, according to Internet security experts.

The worm forced Maryland's motor vehicle agency to close for the day and kicked Swedish Internet users offline as it spread, the Associated Press said.

The US government issued a warning about the security flaw, and released an advisory warning after thousands of machines began scanning the Internet for vulnerable computers.

Experts said the worm is designed to cripple the Microsoft Web site where Windows customers can get a software patch to repair the very same flaw that Blaster is using to spread itself.

Beginning Aug. 16, the worm will direct all infected computers to send a stream of information to www.windowsupdate.com as part of an attack to overwhelm the site. The attack, which is referred to as a denial of service campaign, will continue for the remainder of the year.

The worm also includes a message to Microsoft's chairman and co-founder, Bill Gates: "billy gates why do you make this possible? Stop making money and fix your software!!"

(Xinhua News Agency August 13, 2003)