Last year's Pretty Park is back in a new version and rapidly spreading in the wild, according to Ntework Associates, which has identified the new infection. The virus arrives as an e-mail attachment named 'pretty park.exe' and does not alter or delete files. Instead, the virus sends a copy of itself to everyone in the victim's e-mail address book every 30 minutes. This can cause an entire network to bog down.

Networks Associates say that the virus is spreading very rapidly and has infected computers in a dozen corporate and government networks. Pretty Park first appeared last year and this new version has been given the designation of "W32/Pretty.worm.unp".

However according to Network Associates spokesperson, Kelly Shall, the present manifestation is merely last year's virus in uncompressed form. The virus was first discovered in mid-February, but wasn't considereda serious risk at that time. But now the virus is spreading rapidly, according to published reports.

One of the characteristics of the virus is that it can infect Windows platforms. Virulent e-mail messages arrive with the subject line "C:Cool/ProgsPretty Park.exe'. Attached to the e-mail is a program with an icon of Kyle, one of the characters from TV series South Park.