Mydoom is programmed to send a wave of requests for information to SCO's site when a computer's clock shows the date to be on or after Sunday. The attacks are programmed to stop on or after Feb. 12.

"There are computers with incorrect clock settings that may already be firing off an attack," against SCO's site, said Heather Deem, a spokeswoman for F-Secure.

"If this is as big as we believe it will be, especially Feb. 1 when this virus is supposed to be appearing in earnest and start the process of doing a denial-of-service attack on our Web site, this is something we have to take pretty seriously," Stowell said.

"It's hard to know what to expect on Feb. 1. This really is in its infancy. Certainly, our information technology teams are taking precautions, working closely with our Internet service provider to monitor traffic and monitor our ability to serve up Web pages to users who want to visit sco.com."

Stowell said this attack differs from previous ones by affecting end users, potentially compromising their computers by altering or downloading files.

"Our company has had to fight for our intellectual property rights the last 10 months or so in the industry. We've tried to assert our intellectual property rights, and we've tried to do it in a legal and forthright way. In response, we receive these types of activities by individuals who have no desire to keep their activities within the bounds of the law," Stowell said.

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Contributing: Bloomberg News; The Associated Press; E-mail: bwallace@desnews.com