'Free porn' mail virus hits biz world

Companies, including NASA, Comcast, AIG, Disney and Proctor & Gamble have all been affected. Comcast was forced to shutdown its servers on Friday after being hit by the new deadly virus.

The “Trojan” virus with the subject ‘Here you have’ fills inboxes with multiple e-mails after infecting users’ address books. In some cases, the virus is even bringing down corporate e-mail systems with the sheer weight of messages, the “Daily Mail” reported.

Trojans are malicious programmes that hide inside apparently harmless computer files. The virus arrives as an e-mail with the subject line ‘Here you have’ and invites the user to click on a link to a PDF file. One of the most common variants promises a link to free sex downloads.

Once the user clicks on the desired links, the virus is downloaded onto his machine and spreads to all the contacts in his e-mail account, sending them a similar e-mail in turn.

Most searched phrase

The worm also tries to shutdown any anti-virus software that has been installed. The term ‘Here you have virus’ is now one of the most searched phrase on Google.

One version of the e-mail says, “Hello: This is the document I told you about, you can find it here” and includes a link to what looks like a PDF.

Another includes the subject “Just for you” and says “This is the free download sex movies, you can find it here.” Computer security firm McAfee is warning companies all across the world to delete the message without clicking the link and alert respective IT office.

Ram Herkanaidu, security researcher at Moscow headquartered Kaspersky Lab, said that the e-mail closely resembles the “I love you” virus which caused havoc about 10 years ago. His firm has now raised their global threat level.

“We’ve identified an e-mail worm called VBMania. The interesting thing about this is that it uses very old tactics. The worm is so called because it worms itself through your e-mail address book and sends copies of itself out to all your contacts,” Ram Herkanaidusaid.