Bagels are not always healthy for you, or your computer.

An e-mail worm, called the Bagel Worm, is in circulation this week, and Lawrence residents may want to update their computer’s anti-virus software.

The Kansas University Computer Help Desk is advising all computer users to update virus software frequently and not to open any e-mail attachments that come from unknown persons or are unexpected.

Several people have reported getting e-mails purporting to come from people with the address house.state.ks.us. E-mails from other state government addresses, such as Louisiana’s house.state.la.us, have also been reported.
When a computer user opens the attachment, the Bagel virus allows people to monitor and collect information from the infected computer. The virus generally appears as a zip file that is password protected.

Another virus making the rounds this winter is called Mydoom. It first appeared in late January, and shows up as a text, zip, exe or document file. Most viruses like Mydoom and Bagel use people’s saved addresses in their e-mail system and automatically send the virus to others. The computer user does not have to open the e-mail or attachment for the virus to replicate and send itself.

It is not clear which of these viruses is circulating through state government e-mail addresses.

If anti-virus software is not updated regularly, the software will not catch recently developed viruses such as this one.

“It’s not causing too much of a problem at this point,” Caleb Asher, a spokesman for the Kansas Department of Administration, said.

Asher said the state government’s anti-virus software should catch the virus.