With Valentine's Day just around the corner, anti-virus software makers yesterday warned the public to be cautious when opening up love-laced e-mails.
"A cyber-worm called `love letter' can attack computers and crash an entire e-mail server," said Terence Wang (王應達), a technical support manager at Trend Micro Inc (趨勢科技), the maker of the anti-virus software, PC-Cillin.
First discovered in May 2000, the love bug caused an estimated US$7 billion in damage in 2000, according to the information technology research center International Data Corp.
While the worm has been less active since it first surfaced, it still has the potential to cause havoc, particularly on special occasions, Wang said.
The virus disguises itself as an e-mail from an admirer that says, "I love you" or "kindly check the attached love letter from me."
"People tend to be less alert around Valentine's Day and are more vulnerable than usual to e-mails about love," said Ben Tu (
Once the receiver opens the "love letter" the worm will automatically churn out e-mails with the file "Love-letter-for-you.txt.vbs" attached to everyone in the users' address book.
"Computers as well as servers can be overloaded, crippling systems," Tu said.
The worm may also damage .jpg or .mp3 files, leaving computer users unable to listen to music or open up graphic files, he said.
"Although the worm is not very destructive and we rank it as medium risk, it spreads very quickly compared with other e-mail viruses," Wang said.
He urged Internet surfers to update their anti-virus programs as soon as possible and not to open any e-mails with unusual titles.
Bug busters also warned computer users to be cautious when opening e-cards. Some computers have been infected after downloading viewing software that allows e-cards to be read, Wang said.
A safe way to send and receive Web-based greeting cards is to use popular sites.
"As long as you are sending and receiving greetings via well-known Web sites, the chances of getting infected will be limited," he said.
Nevertheless, computer users are never 100 percent safe.
Several hackers invaded the popular www.friendgreetings.com in October last year, infecting the computers of all users who subsequently downloaded greeting cards.
As a result, the site was forced to shut down in November.
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