The Verse - Volume 20
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Tech Tips - Black Worm Virus a Bust

A computer virus that was designed to start its malicious work last week did not cause a significant problem for computer users world wide.

The worm, known as Black Worm, Kama Sutra, Mywife or CME-24, hides inside email attachments and contains a time-activated payload due to execute on the third day of each month.

Once activated, the worm would try to spread itself, attempt to stop anti-worm software from running and try to delete all Word, Excel, PowerPoint and PDF file types from an infected PC.

The worm, was discovered two weeks ago, giving security firms and computer users plenty of time to prepare.

Rather than disabling up to 500,000 PCs that were expected to be infected, the virus had hit only a few thousand computers by midday, according to several computer security firms.

Advance warnings by virus security firms and enterprises to their customers and employees appeared to have worked.

As a result of that preparation and because the worm was relatively benign to begin with there were few reports of serious damage.

"Sure, you could lose your data if your computer gets infected, but if your data is backed up that shouldn't be a problem," said Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant for Sophos. It is a lot like the "I Love You Virus" of the early 2000s.

The Black Worm, which spreads by e-mail, repeats a trick employed often with Internet viruses by using a sexy name, or the promise of sexy photographs, to entice the recipient to open the e-mail.

Subject lines include: "School Girl Fantasies Gone Bad" and "Crazy Illegal Sex." The worm is also known as Black Worm and Mywife.

Cluley has not seen any reports of data lost thus far. "It is a grand total of zero for the entire world," he said.

The absence of any big problems following all the hubbub over the worm's impending arrival may result in an unwelcome backlash, Cluley said.

"The media reported the warnings over and over again. Everybody got ready for the worst and then little happened," he noted. The next time computer users may not be so vigilant about updating their security software, Cluley fears.