'Kakworm' on course for Christmas number one

Email virus Navidad, whose name means Christmas in Spanish, accounted for 14.6 per cent of all infections reported to anti-virus company Sophos in November and it is spreading fast.

By Ben King, 5 December 2000 16:27

NEWS After only one month, Navidad is already seventh in Sophos' list of most frequently reported viruses. Navidad is not on course for a Christmas number one, an honour that will almost certainly go to 'Kakworm'. Like Navidad, Kakworm spreads via email, but it exploits a fault in the Outlook Express program, allowing it to spread without the user opening an attachment Graham Cluley, head of corporate communications at Sophos, said: "Microsoft posted a patch for this program last August, but it hasn't been widely publicised and the virus is still spreading." He added that Christmas is a particularly bad time of year for viruses as people send each other more emails with Christmas-related joke programs attached, which are often infected. "Offices take on a holiday camp atmosphere, and peoples' guards are down," said Cluley. "It's OK to send text jokes, but systems administrators should ban people from sending jokes with attachments. It is just too dangerous."

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