A brand new worm slithering through the Web is getting passed by Microsoft Outlook home and businesses users and is so bad it has the potential of wiping out complete files.

Anti-virus experts at McAfee.com identified the worm early Tuesday morning and have named it the Pentagone or "Goner" after its identification string W32/Goner@MM. The company assessed the virus as a HIGH risk - it's most serious rating. Compared to other well known computer infections such as NIMDA, Code Red, Melissa and ILOVEYOU, McAfee says this is pretty serious stuff. "To coin a phrase from Star Trek - this is certainly an attempt to bring down the shields," says McAfee Security Architect Sam Curry. "It has the potential to be as destructive as the others, but it's still too early in the game and we won't see the full impact of this worm for some time. Unlike the Anna Kournikova virus that did one thing, this one is a hybrid virus that does a few things like deleting firewall and anti-virus files. Curry says that like many other e-mail-based infections, the worm is expected to spread further at the times when people are checking their e-mail - early in the morning, at lunch and when they get home from work. This mass-mailing worm attempts to send itself using Microsoft Outlook to all entries found in the Outlook Address book. It can also use the instant messaging platform ICQ to spread as well. The worm arrives in an e-mail message contains the subject "Hi" with a short message in the body.