Security experts say the computer virus "Anna Kournikova" has hit more than 1 million individual users in Australia, since early this morning.
By lunchtime, Trend Micro Australia said corporations had received anything from 20 to 'tens of thousands' of copies of the worm.
"These viruses are being sent from individuals which have been infected," Trend Micro marketing manager, Andy Liou told ZDNet.
The worm known as "Anna Kournikova" or VBS_Kalamar.A, is a mass-mailer virus, which experts say is spreading rapidly. The subject line reads "Here you have, :o)", and the message says, "Hi: Check this!".
The company has ranked the worm as more virulent than the 'Love' bug virus, which wreaked havoc in May 2000, costing around $US10 billion worldwide.
Liou told ZDNet the new worm spread to more than 20 large Australian corporations in a matter of hours, since the first sighting was confirmed locally around 9.30 this morning.
Those swept up by the virus range from the IT sector right through to government organisations.
Liou told ZDNet that users shouldn't be tricked into opening this worm, as they should have learnt from the outbreak of the 'Love' bug.
"People don't listen, this virus shouldn't be spreading so fast."
However, he admitted "if we receive an [email] message that says, "I love you" [or a picture of Anna Kornikova], who's not going to click on it."
To combat this, Trend Micro says companies need to provide the best protection in terms of technology, but also need a policy in place to cover human behaviour.
Past viruses exploited technology security holes, now viruses have been written that target human nature, and "we're all fallible."
"We are going to see more of these email viruses in the future," Liou said.
iculous -- "Who is going to click on a message
I love you?" or what not???
My GOD, ARE YOU THAT DESPERATE???
My fellow man - please check your emotions at the door as 99.9% of the time no one is going to send you a message like the ones we have experienced in the last year.
Its not your fault, as the media has made these things so overblown you think they may not ever occur...
Or maybe its just a few newbies that have access to corporate address books and the IT genius’s have yet to put the aaaa_1_virus user name on the address book so that they are aware immediately of who should be locked out of exchange until further notice.