New computer virus called 'Naked Wife' wreaks havoc

[InfoSec News <isn () C4I ORG>]

http://www.nandotimes.com/technology/story/0,1643,500460563-500701588-503821216-0,00.html

WASHINGTON (March 6, 2001 4:48 p.m. EST http://www.nandotimes.com)
A destructive computer virus known as "Naked Wife" hit at least 30
organizations and one federal agency Tuesday, security experts said.

Like the most recent widespread virus that used the name of tennis
star Anna Kournikova, this new program called "Naked Wife" takes
advantage of users "baser instincts," an antivirus company spokeswoman
said.

Steve Trilling, director of research at the Symantec Antivirus
Research Center, said about 20 of Symantec's clients in Canada, the
United States and Europe had been hit.

Trilling said the virus, which appears with the subject line "FW:
Naked Wife," deletes almost all of a computer's vital system files. It
also sends itself out to everyone in the user's e-mail address book.

"It essentially destroys your Windows operating system," he said.

The virus e-mail contains an attachment called "NakedWife.exe." Like
most viruses, the recipient's computer is only infected if the
receiver runs the attachment, and major antivirus companies have
released software that detects and removes it.

Susan Orbach, spokeswoman for Trend Micro, said her company has
received reports of infections from 10 corporate clients, including
two large telecommunications firms, a federal agency and a
"multinational conglomerate," she said.

"This is not any new technology we haven't seen before," Orbach said.
"It's social engineering to take advantage of our baser instincts."

Both Trilling and Orbach suggested that corporate network
administrators block incoming program attachments, since it seems that
computer users will continue to click on suspicious attachments, no
matter how many times they're stung.

"Very few people have a legitimate reason to receive executable files
in e-mail," Orbach said. "Haven't people learned?"

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