“The computer virus BugBear, also known as Tanatos, is shaping up to be the nastiest released in 2002. Since its first logged occurrence on Sunday, anti-virus company Message Labs said on Thursday it has stopped at least 70,000 copies, 22,000 of which were identified in the last 24 hours.

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It can also capture passwords and credit card details entered on an infected machine using a hidden program that stores keystrokes. The worm bundles up this information into a local file and emails it to a set of encrypted email addresses stored within the worm.

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Patches to fix the hole that BugBear exploits have been available for 18 months. But Cluley believes the worm will persist for several more months before it dies out. He says the fundamental problem is that end users are lazy: “They just don’t install the patches and update their anti-virus programs frequently enough.” New Scientist.

More about BugBear here, also from New Scientist.