Worm Lurks in Nude New Year E-Mail

That New Year's greeting with a group of naked men and women spelling out Happy New Year with their bodies could lead to more than just trouble with a significant other. Security firm Sophos has discovered a worm hiding in the photo attachment and named it Wurmark-D.

"The virus spreads using a couple of different e-mail subject lines with an attached ZIP file. If the user runs the program inside the ZIP they get infected," Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant for Sophos, told TechNewsWorld.

Worm Acts While Viewer's Distracted

As a recipient is viewing the image, the virus installs itself on the computer.

The virus tries to shut down any antivirus software it finds. It also harvests e-mail addresses from the computer and forwards itself to the contacts using its own e-mail engine.

The worm is also called W32/Wurmark-D or W32/Mugly.gen@MM.

The good news, Cluley said, is that Wurmark-D is not making much of a mark. "It's certainly not spreading rapidly -- we've only had a handful of reports. The fact that it has such a visual payload probably means that it is less likely to spread than some of the other viruses that are out there," he said.

Just Another Worm

The worm is nothing unusual as malware goes.

"It's just one of many e-mail-aware viruses that travel via a malicious attachment," Cluley said.

He then reiterated a caution all computer users should heed. "It's really important that people learn to resist launching unsolicited e-mail attachments."

So far, 2005 has not brought a major malware attack, but that does not mean that computer users should let down their guard.

"So far it [malware activity] seems pretty normal. There have been no new major outbreaks yet this year, but old viruses from 2004 are still spreading successfully and causing a nuisance, and new viruses are being released all the time," he said.