Agents Tracking ‘Melissa’ Check Aol

Federal agents hunting for the author of the “Melissa” computer virus obtained a court order Thursday seeking background information from America Online, one day after seizing a computer from a Florida Internet access provider that may contain clues to the origin of the virus.

The Melissa virus, which emerged last Friday, can spread exponentially because it automatically sends itself from one recipient’s e-mail account to as many as 50 others.

It has spread more quickly than any other computer mutation in history, infecting more than 100,000 computers in five days, computer security experts have said.

The search for the creator of the virus has focused on a small group of virus writers who use monikers including VicodinES and ALT-F11. Those nicknames have been associated with several key aspects of the release of the virus and with virus-creation in general.

The Web page for VicodinES touted the ability of its author as a “noted virus researcher” and cited several viruses he had created. It was published on a computer kept at Access Orlando, a small Internet service provider in Orlando, Fla.

America Online said Thursday that it had received a court order regarding the Melissa virus from a federal law enforcement agency but declined to specify the information sought by the court order. “Our policy is to cooperate when presented with a formal request,” said Wendy Goldberg, an AOL spokeswoman.