LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Worms (Malicious Software): Email
built 217 days ago
Worms (Malicious Software) also shows up in the Retriever categories:
Worms (Animal) , and more.
Worms (Animal) , and more.
Most disturbing, with the latest mutation trend, is the breadth of threats which have mutated; more than 88 percent of all IM worms tracked by IMlogic Threat Center have demonstrated mutations. In addition, traditional email worms have begun spreading through IM. For example the email Rbot worm which has mutated over 600 times since first being discovered in email, now has over 13 mutations using IM for distribution.
Source:
Common sense is the best defense against email worms because they rely on deception for propagation. Antivirus and anti-malware software are good for backup defense against email worms. They are fairly useless during the early days of a scanning worm attack, because there hasn't been time to update their malware signature files.
Source:
In the past few years, worms that automatically sent email messages were common. Last year and this year, worms that automatically send IM messages are common. Before opening a link received via email or IM, respond to the sender asking if they intended to send a link. If he or she responds "no", then the message (and the link) was likely generated by a worm and should not be opened. Even if the sender confirms he or she intended to send the link, it should be opened with extreme caution if it is opened at all.
Source:
Be aware that during spreading some worms construct new sender addresses based on possible names combined with common domain names. So, the sender address in the email doesn't need to be the originator of the email.
Source:
Yes, as dre pointed out, there's a misunderstanding in this entry between the "spreading" of worms versus the "control" of a virus/worm. IRC is almost used for controlling a trojan or worm that has already taken over a PC through email, web, etc.
Source:
MORE ABOUT
Email