Virus Warning

[Guest Grim Reaper]

Fans of Sex and the City were today warned to be wary of emails claiming to contain a screensaver showing adult outtakes from the raunchy hit TV show.

Instead of delivering illicit thrills, the emails are far more likely to carry one of two variants of a new email worm, called Torvil-A and Torvil-B).

The infectious email typically travel with a variety of subject lines and message bodies such as: 'Real outtakes from Sex in the City!! Adult content!!! Use with parental advisory =)'.

If the attached file is launched, the worm will try to secrete copies of itself on public Internet newsgroups. The worm will also forward itself every time an infected computer sends an email.

Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant for Sophos, said that this spreading mechanism (something of a departure for virus writers) makes infectious emails look more plausible.

So it's just as well that neither variant of the worm is particularly harmful or rapidly spreading.

Sophos has received a "handful of reports" of the two Torvil worms variants, making each more of a curiosity than a serious nuisance.

As usual, these worms are Windows-only menaces - Linux, Mac, OS/2 and Unix users are immune.

"Carrie Bradshaw's [sarah Jessica Parker's] Apple Mac can't be infected by this particular worm, but PC users should ensure they follow safe computing guidelines and practise safe hex, treating all unsolicited emails with caution," comments Sophos' Cluley.

The stars of Sex and the City are just the latest in a long line of glamorous celebrities who have been used as bait by virus writers to catch out unwary computer users. Other female stars to have been exploited by virus writers in the past include Britney Spears, Anna Kournikova, Avril Lavigne, Jennifer Lopez and Kylie Minogue, among numerous others

[andsome]

It's getting worse