Security news
Security news7 March 2001
Thou shalt not covet thy naked wife
Sophos, a world leader in corporate anti-virus protection, has reminded companies of the importance of safe computing practice in the wake of the latest virus to become widespread via email.
The W32/Naked worm arrives as an attached executable file to an email entitled "Fw: Naked Wife" containing the text "My wife never look like that! ;-)". The virus is the latest in a long line to use social engineering in an attempt to lure users into activating it. Earlier viruses have pretended to be loveletters, pictures of Russian tennis players, and even the Pikachu Pokemon character.
"Do people really forget so quickly?" said Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant for Sophos Anti-Virus. "Just four weeks after the Anna Kournikova virus breakout we see another virus using a similar trick to fool users into running it. Users need to ask themselves if the promise of a naughty video clip is really worth risking the data on their hard drive."
Sophos has published a list of tips of safe computing practice (known as "Safe Hex") which can dramatically reduce the chances of being infected by viruses.
