Kama Sutra worm alert

February 2, 2006

I just received the following email from SpamStopsHere. I was vaguely aware of the Kama Sutra worm but really hadn’t realized the consequences. In addition to making sure that all my virus apps are up-to-date, I guess I am going to round up all of my files with the listed extensions and burn them to disk where they should be safe. Note: Don’t think you can just zip them up into one file and leave it on your system as zip is listed as an affected extension.

Dear SpamStopsHere Customer:

You are receiving this email because you are a SpamStopsHere customer and we wanted to notify you of important information regarding your SpamStopsHere anti-virus protection.

The Kama Sutra (W32.Blackmal.E@mm) worm, identified as W32/Nyxem.E@mm by SpamStopsHere’s provided anti-virus engine, is reported to cause damage to potentially important documents starting Friday, February 3, 2006.

Unlike most recent email worms which simply open a back door to allow for theft of information and services, this malware actually truncates all files with the following filename extensions:

.doc
.xls
.mdb
.mde
.ppt
.pps
.zip
.rar
.pdf
.psd
.dmp

Although SpamStopsHere has been removing this virus from the email of our anti-virus customers, it’s possible that computers may already be infected, especially if you aren’t a subscriber of our anti-virus service. This virus was first spotted in the wild on January 16, 2006.

Right now, the only symptoms of the virus may have been that your computer locked up requiring a reboot. The owner of an infected system isn’t likely to notice any other symptoms until tomorrow when many potentially important documents would be irrecoverable. Depending on the files erased, and the availability of backups, this virus could cause irreperable harm and monetary damages.

The security industry is suggesting that organizations and personal computer owners ensure the availability of their document backups and also to check for this worm on all systems before Friday, February 3, 2006.

Symantec(tm) is offering a free detection and removal tool at the following URL:

W32.Blackmal@mm Removal Tool

Thank you for your valuable time.

Sincerely,

SpamStopsHere Technical Support

I’ve actually become a little complacent lately because I am subscribed to SpamStopsHere virus service and haven’t had to worry about anything in a long time. That filters most of the incoming email (except for Yahoo and Hotmail accounts). I don’t spend too much time worrying about the other computers in the house since I am the only Admin that logs on to them, and the rest of the family logs in with regular guest privileges. I would take a chance, but I haven’t backed anything up in forever so I might as well use this as my excuse to do it. You should do the same.

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Posted by Matt Smith | Filed Under General 

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