The worm, which is believed to have spread from Europe to the US overnight, lures users with an attachment called -AnnaKournikova.jpg.vbs". If a user opens the file, the worm is automtatically spread to all email addresses in the user's address book.
No serious damage has been reported yet, but local senior marketing manager for McAfee parent Network Associates, Allan Bell, said the virus would spread as quickly as the infamous 'Love' Bug spread last year, if companies were not equipped with current antivirus software.
-It's a variant of the Love Letter, which means somebody hasn't written it from scratch," Bell said.
Reports confirm one large Australian corporation has been hit by the bug this morning. However, Bell said corporate Australia should expect to emerge from the attack largely unfettered.
He said most current antivirus software should prevent the worm from spreading.
The worm had no known adverse effects apart from possibly -bringing in a mailstorm which could bring down your mail server", Bell said.
The bug was also believed to change the language on company Web sites to Dutch on January 26 each year. Bell said it was possible some companies could remain unaware of the worm in their systems until Australia day 2002.
The worm was believed to have first appeared in Europe in August 2000 under the name -Kalamar", but spread the globe -literally overnight" via European Internet news groups, Bell said.
A local spokesperson for antivirus software company Trend Micro said the worm had hit 10 large corporates in the US and -several" corporates in Europe.
-It's nothing new. These viruses don't have any new technology. They rely on the stupidity of end users. If users don't click on it, they won't contribute to the spread of the virus," Trend Micro spokesman Andy Liou, said.
Megan McAuliffe contributed to this report
Andy Lieu of Trend Microsystems is obviuosly gifted in the art of communication when he states that the virus relies on the "stupidity of the end user" a better phrase would have been "the unsuspecting good nature" or something similiar.
I know that my CEO dosn't consider himself stupid but if bitten by this bug rather than feel stupid he will be further alienated from IT and the "propeller heads" who didn't stop it from getting through.
Comments like this undermine efforts to align IT and business understanding, mutual respect etc