News
‘Naked Wife’ Worm Latest Virus to Hit
- By Scott Bekker
- 03/07/2001
A new e-mail-borne worm masquerading as "Naked Wife"
has begun making its way through some U.S. corporations. If executed, the worm,
which was first reported on Tuesday, can delete Windows directory files and
also destroy PCs.
"We have received several reports, about 30 or 40 so
far," says Mike Donnelly, support consultant at Sophos Anti-Virus. "It deletes a
number of files from the Windows directory and sub-directories of the Windows
directory."
The email shows up in a user's inbox with the subject
headline 'Fw: My Naked Wife.' It's message body reads 'My wife never looked
like that!' and contains a Nakedwife.exe attachment.
Once opened, the worm spreads by emailing itself to address
listed in the user's Microsoft Outlook address book. When the attachment is run
it imitates a video player and displays an image to fool the user into
believing that a video is loading.
Although it has not had a major impact on U.S. corporations
so far, Donnelly says the worm is still dangerous because it's a worm that
deletes systems files.
"It could destroy PCs by deleting the systems
files," he says. "But right now it's just a typical worm with a
simple text subject that catches the user's eye." – Jim Martin
About the Author
Scott Bekker is editor in chief of Redmond Channel Partner magazine.