Oh no, you're thinking, yet another cookie pop-up. Well, sorry, it's the law. We measure how many people read us, and ensure you see relevant ads, by storing cookies on your device. If you're cool with that, hit “Accept all Cookies”. For more info and to customise your settings, hit “Customise Settings”.

Review and manage your consent

Here's an overview of our use of cookies, similar technologies and how to manage them. You can also change your choices at any time, by hitting the “Your Consent Options” link on the site's footer.

Manage Cookie Preferences

  • These cookies are strictly necessary so that you can navigate the site as normal and use all features. Without these cookies we cannot provide you with the service that you expect.

  • These cookies are used to make advertising messages more relevant to you. They perform functions like preventing the same ad from continuously reappearing, ensuring that ads are properly displayed for advertisers, and in some cases selecting advertisements that are based on your interests.

  • These cookies collect information in aggregate form to help us understand how our websites are being used. They allow us to count visits and traffic sources so that we can measure and improve the performance of our sites. If people say no to these cookies, we do not know how many people have visited and we cannot monitor performance.

See also our Cookie policy and Privacy policy.
Sign in

Anna Kournikova virus spreading like wildfire

Email worm spreading twice as fast as Love Bug

John Leyden Mon 12 Feb 2001 // 18:26 UTC

An Internet-based email worm that masquerades as a picture of tennis star Anna Kournikova is spreading fast, so posing a severe threat to the world's email servers.

Alex Shipp, senior anti-virus technologist at MessageLabs, which scans customers email for malicious code, said the VBS/SST virus is "spreading twice as fast as the Love Bug".

He said that only four hours after MessageLabs first detected the bug, it has so far intercepted 2,076 copies of VBS/SST originating from 278 different firms.

The worm comes in an email with the subject line "Here you have, ;o)" and an attachment called AnnaKournikova.jpg.vbs.

VBS/SST is written in Visual Basic Script and has mass mailing characteristics, which means it will email itself to everyone in a Outlook users' address book. The worm only infects machines running Microsoft Windows and will only be able to propagate on machines running Outlook that have not installed the patch Microsoft provided after the outbreak of the Love Bug, which used very similar propagation techniques.

Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant at Sophos, said the virus writers were using the same tricks as those who created the Love Bug, but were been even smarter about what would motivate people into opening an infected message.

"People need to think more with their brains instead of concentrating on their forehand wrist action," said Cluley, who predicted nonetheless that the virus would have less of an effect than the Love Bug. ®

Related stories

Users haven't learned any lessons from the Love Bug

Other stories you might like

Biting the hand that feeds IT © 1998–2022

Your Consent Options Cookies Privacy Ts&Cs