Antivirus vendor F-Secure Corp. is warning that a new virus is on the prowl. The company has listed the virus, dubbed Lioten or Iraq_Oil, as a Level 2 threat. On a scale of one to five, Level 1 is the most dangerous. The virus was discovered "in the wild" Monday.

F-Secure has posted an advisory saying that it has "no further information on what the worm does in addition to spreading." The Iraq_Oil virus is unlike many recent viruses that spread through E-mail. According to F-Secure, this one scans the Internet for Windows 2000 and XP systems that have shared folders and aren't protected by a personal firewall. If it's successful in guessing the password, the virus copies itself to the system, usually in a file named iraq_oil.exe, then looks for new systems to infect.

F-Secure says it's not clear why the worm refers to Iraq, but some security experts have predicted an increase in malicious viruses, worms, and politically motivated hacking if war with Iraq were to occur.

The virus exploits the Windows Server Message Block on Port 445, and F-Secure says most every personal firewall will protect against this worm. More information is available at F-Secure's Web site at www.f-secure.fi/v-descs/lioten.shtml.