ZDNet India : Old-school worm loves Windows applications

Although the latest Lovgate worm does not delete any user data--such as documents or spreadsheets--it replaces executable files (with the .exe extension) on the local hard drive with further copies of itself. This process can leave an infected computer effectively useless because it is unable to run any applications.

"The virus might do this renaming operation to hundreds of .exe files in one go. The end result is that instead of finding one or two infected files, the user will find masses of them. With Lovgate, this is normal,"