Kama Sutra worm seduces PC users

A new e-mail worm that spreads under the guise of pornographic content has jumped to the top of the worldwide virus charts.

When run on a Windows PC, the worm copies itself to shared network locations and sends itself to e-mail addresses found on the target computer. The pest includes a timed attack that attempts to disable antivirus and firewall software and delete certain files, including Office documents, on the third day of the month, according to antivirus software vendor F-Secure.

The worm, dubbed W32/Nyxem-E by F-Secure, arrives attached to an e-mail message. It uses a variety of subject lines, including "School girl fantasies gone bad." The body text also varies, but it can include references to the Kama Sutra, the ancient Sanskrit book with pictures and explanations about different sexual positions. The worm executes when the user opens the attachment.

"This worm feeds on people's willingness to receive salacious content on their desktop computer," Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant for antivirus vendor Sophos, said in a statement.

Nyxem-E was the most commonly caught threat in the past 24 hours, according to both F-Secure and Trend Micro, which calls the worm Grew.A. The worm also has its own counting mechanism, and it showed 510,000 infected systems on Saturday, according to F-Secure.

"Our internal reporting system shows a steady stream of Nyxems being reported from all over the world, from USA to Australia," F-Secure said in a statement on its corporate blog. "If the worm keeps this pace, Friday the 3rd of February might be nasty--that's when the destructive payload is programmed to strike for the first time."

To protect themselves, users should keep their antivirus software up to date and be wary when opening e-mail attachments, experts said.

[open-mind]

Windows Perverts. Serves you right.

We Mac users would never be seduced by this.<br /><br />;-)

[someguy389]

Mac users...

aren't porn watchers, huh? Must be getting their jollies from those sleek, sexy white cases...

[kama-sutra]

Mac with Intel Chips are just as vulnerable now

LOL!.. in any case.. intel based macs are a new sweet target.. so put up your parental word filters.<br /><br />wan qi <br /><a class="jive-link-external" href="http://kama-sutra-sex.blogspot.com" target="_newWindow">http://kama-sutra-sex.blogspot.com</a>

[Stan Johnson]

You need to be an IDIOT to get this one...

Sure, go ahead and open that unknown email. Go ahead and click on that icon. If you get this bug you deserve it.

[Michael G.]

Serves 'em Right

All those Windows office workers looking for a cheap thrill, when they should be WORKING. If any dummy at work catches this, they should be FIRED.

[Macsaresafer]

And any home users...

that catch it deserve it too. After all, they were dumb enough to <br />buy/use Windows. <br /><br />Geez, how many Windows worms so far this year? And it's only the <br />24th of January!

[City_Of_LA]

People are idiots

They should be chucked in jail on the count of stupidity in the first degree.

[Earl Benser]

At least the PC using people....

nt

[aqvanavt]

Ka(r)ma more like

Now this is a virus I can support. Porn has trashed the internet, made it a hidey hole for sickos. Of course it's the twelve year old hoping for a "glimpse" that will end up paying the price with a totally infected machine. Ahh, the indescretions of youth.

[Michael G.]

Kama Sutra=A Sure Success...

What's funny is that the Kama Sutra worm will probably be successful---after all, when it comes to eye-candy, the flesh is weak. The temptation will be <br />too great, for some...kind of like those thousands who spread the Paris Hilton screensaver around last month, or those that got a virus when they visited one of Cristina Aguilera's fan sites. There will always be enough fools to spread these things around.

[janjop31]

Yet another reason to dump Windows

The folks at Microsoft know that their system is easily hackable and and do far too little to create a less vulnerable system. <br /><br />Until the very wealthy and capable folks at Microsoft decide to stop lying about how secure their system is and rewrite Windows from the ground up, the virus vulnerability issue will continue. <br /><br />You can keep making the case for Windows superiority or you can be smarter and consider any Unix OS or buy Mac machines.<br /><br />Granted change is never easy but is often necessary for survival.

[alfredthebutler]

I can agree to some extent that victims themselves are partially to blame. Opening an unknown email attachment in hopes of finding raunchy material is definitely not the smartest thing to do.